Brand licensing, franchising and private label

• Regulation (EU) 2023/988 — GPSR
• Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 — Article 4
• Directive (EU) 2024/2853 — product liability
• Sectoral legislation depending on the product

Who has to appoint one

Anyone who places a product on the market under their own name or trade mark, or who modifies a product already on the market in a way that affects its conformity. This makes private-label sellers, brand licensors and many franchisors manufacturers in law, with the full set of duties, even though they never operate a factory.

Thresholds and exemptions

None. The manufacturer definition is functional and turns on whose name is on the product, not on who physically made it.

What must appear on the label

Your name and address as manufacturer, alongside the EU responsible person or authorised representative. The factory's name does not discharge the obligation, and where the factory's original label is covered by yours you own the whole compliance file.

Marketplace fields

Marketplaces treat the brand owner as the manufacturer and demand documentation in your name. A supplier's declaration of conformity naming the factory is routinely rejected when the listing shows your brand.

Documentation you must hold

Your own declaration of conformity, technical documentation and risk assessment, which you may compile from supplier material but must own and be able to defend. Supply agreements giving you access to the underlying test reports and the right to audit. Traceability records. Product liability insurance, since the new Product Liability Directive expressly names the person who puts their name on a product as a liable party.

Standards and testing

Determined by the product category. What is specific here is verification: relying on the factory's assurance without independent testing is the pattern that produces recalls, because the specification the factory tested is often not the one it shipped.

Language requirements

All labelling and instructions in the languages of the markets served, produced by you rather than inherited from the supplier.

When it applies

Before the first unit is placed on the market under your brand. Changing supplier or specification restarts the verification, since the documentation refers to the product as tested.

How long records are kept

Ten years for the technical documentation and traceability records, and longer where the sectoral rules require it.

What happens if you do not comply

The full manufacturer exposure: withdrawal, recall at your cost, Safety Gate alerts naming your brand, national fines, and product liability under the recast Directive with a longer limitation period and easier proof for claimants. Being able to point at the factory does not transfer liability.

Who enforces it

Market surveillance authorities, customs, and the civil courts for liability claims.

Where the boundary lies

This is the most common structural misunderstanding in cross-border e-commerce: putting your logo on a factory's catalogue product makes you the manufacturer with all that follows. The corollary is that the factory's certificates are evidence you may use but not documents you may rely on unexamined.

Questions we are asked

The factory has a CE certificate — is that enough?

Not once you sell under your own brand. You are the manufacturer, the declaration must be in your name, and you must hold the technical file.

Can we contract the liability back to the supplier?

Contractually you can seek indemnity, and it is worth having. It does not change your position toward authorities or toward an injured consumer.