The GPSR updates and replaces the 2001 General Product Safety Directive to provide a horizontal safety net for all consumer products, including those sold online and those with digital elements. It tightens duties on manufacturers and other economic operators, creates specific obligations for online marketplaces, and modernises EU recall tools through the Safety Gate and a new Safety Business Gateway. Its AI-relevance lies in coverage of software-driven and connected products, lifecycle safety, and marketplace enforcement that interacts with the DSA, CRA and AI Act ecosystems. As the Regulation states: ‘New technologies might substantially modify the original product, for instance through software updates, which should then be subject to a new risk assessment’ (Recital 25).
Full name: Regulation (EU) 2023/988 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 on general product safety, amending Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and the Council, and repealing Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 87/357/EEC (Text with EEA relevance)