What Do I Need to Sell in Europe? US & UK Seller Guide (2026)

What do you need to sell in Europe? As of 5 October 2026, a US or UK business selling consumer products online to people in the European Union needs five things in place: a safe product that meets any product-specific EU law, an operator established in the EU that is responsible for it, correct labels, the required information in every online offer, and working arrangements for VAT, customs, producer responsibility and EU consumer rights.

The product-safety part comes from the General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (GPSR), which has applied since 13 December 2024. The rest comes from separate EU and national rules, which we describe only at a general level with links to official sources. The exact legal references for the product-safety rules are collected in the sources table at the end.

The checklist in one minute:

1. Check which EU product laws apply (general safety, plus any product-specific law such as toys or electrical equipment).
2. Confirm an EU-established operator for your product before you sell.
3. Put the required identification and contact details on the product, packaging, parcel or an accompanying document.
4. Show the required manufacturer, responsible person, product and safety information in every online offer.
5. Set up VAT for cross-border e-commerce.
6. Plan customs clearance and import duties.
7. Check producer-responsibility (EPR) rules for packaging, electronics and batteries.
8. Follow EU consumer rules for distance sales.

When do EU rules apply to a US or UK seller?

They apply as soon as you target EU consumers, even if your company, stock and website are outside the EU. Under the GPSR, a product offered online counts as made available on the EU market if the offer is aimed at consumers in the EU, that is, if the seller directs its activities, by any means, to one or more EU countries.

From that point, the GPSR's basic rule applies: businesses may only place or make available safe products. New to the regulation? Start with what the GPSR is and keep our glossary open for terms such as "economic operator".

What do I need to sell in Europe? The core checklist

Rows (e) to (h) are outside our expertise and our service, so we only point to the official pages.

(a) Who is your EU-established operator?

This is the item non-EU sellers miss most often. The GPSR says a product may not be placed on the market unless a business established in the EU is responsible for a set of product-safety tasks. The EU market surveillance regulation lists who that can be: an EU manufacturer; an importer, where the manufacturer is outside the EU; an authorised representative with a written mandate; or an EU fulfilment service provider for the products it handles, where none of the others is established in the EU.

Those tasks include giving market surveillance authorities the documents they request, informing them about products that present a risk, and cooperating on corrective action. Under the GPSR, the operator must also regularly check, where appropriate, that the product matches its technical documentation and labelling requirements.

If you ship direct to EU consumers from US or UK stock, there is often no EU importer in that route. See whether an EU importer can be your EU responsible person. Our EU Responsible Person guide for US sellers works through each sales route.

(b) Does product-specific EU law apply?

The GPSR is the safety net: it applies where no specific EU rules with the same goal exist. If your product falls under EU harmonisation legislation, the GPSR's general duties for manufacturers, importers, distributors and the responsible person do not apply to it. The GPSR's online-sales rule still does.

For many of those products, the EU-operator rule comes instead from the EU market surveillance regulation. The product laws it lists include the toy safety, low-voltage, electromagnetic-compatibility and radio-equipment directives and the Batteries Regulation. For other product-specific laws, check what that law requires.

Your Europe states that CE marking is only required for products covered by harmonised EU rules that specifically mandate it, and that where no such rules exist, CE marking must not be used.

(c) What has to be on the product?

Where the GPSR's general business duties apply, the manufacturer must add a type, batch or serial number or other identifier; its name, trade name or trade mark and postal and electronic address; and clear instructions and safety information in a language consumers easily understand, as set by the EU country where the product is sold. The EU operator's name and contact details must also appear on the product, packaging, parcel or an accompanying document. Details: GPSR labelling requirements.

(d) What has to be in the online listing?

Under the GPSR, every offer made online or through other distance sales must clearly and visibly show at least:

• the manufacturer's name, registered trade name or trade mark, and postal and electronic address;
• where the manufacturer is outside the EU, the name, postal and electronic address of the responsible person under the GPSR or the EU market surveillance regulation;
• product identification, including a picture, its type and any other identifier;
• any warning or safety information, in a language consumers easily understand.

The second point is the one that matters most for US and UK sellers. Our guide to required information for online sales goes through each field.

(e) VAT on cross-border e-commerce

The Commission's VAT One Stop Shop portal states that the e-commerce VAT rules changed from 1 July 2021, and that the One Stop Shop has three optional schemes (non-Union, Union and import), all of which businesses not established in the EU can possibly use. The Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) is for distance sales of imported goods in consignments not exceeding EUR 150, and a business established outside the EU must appoint an intermediary to use it. Online marketplaces can, in certain circumstances, be the "deemed supplier" for VAT.

Which scheme fits you, and whether a marketplace collects the VAT, are tax questions. Check the current official page or ask a tax adviser.

(f) Customs and import duties

The Commission's customs pages state that goods from outside the EU must be cleared by customs before they circulate freely, and that the duty depends on the customs tariff, the customs value and the origin of the goods. An EORI number is mandatory for customs operations, including for non-EU businesses that lodge customs declarations. Your Europe notes that customs formalities apply between the EU and any non-EU country, which includes the UK. Tariffs per product: Access2Markets.

(g) Extended producer responsibility (EPR)

In broad terms, EPR rules give producers duties for the waste stage of what they put on the market. The Commission's pages describe three rule sets: the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2025/40, which covers all packaging placed on the EU market regardless of origin and which the Commission lists as applying from 12 August 2026; the WEEE Directive for electrical and electronic equipment, which works with national registers of producers; and the Batteries Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. The packaging page also mentions a pending December 2025 proposal on authorised-representative obligations for packaging, so check its status. Registration runs through each Member State's official register.

(h) EU consumer rights for distance sales

Your Europe explains the EU rules for selling online to consumers: the seller must give clear pre-contract information, including your identity, the main characteristics of the goods and the total price with taxes and delivery. Consumers can withdraw within 14 days without a reason (for goods, from delivery). If you do not say in advance that buyers pay for returns, you bear that cost. EU law also requires a legal guarantee of at least 2 years. Your Europe writes these pages for businesses in the EU. Whether and how these consumer rules apply to a US or UK seller depends on how you direct your sales to consumers in the EU; that is a legal question this article does not settle, so check it with a qualified adviser. The GPSR itself confirms that it does not affect these consumer-protection rules.

Do UK sellers need an EU Responsible Person after Brexit?

In most direct-to-consumer setups, yes. The United Kingdom is not an EU Member State, and the GPSR requires an operator established in the EU. A UK company, warehouse or address cannot fill that role.

A UK seller is covered without a separate appointment only if another route under the EU market surveillance regulation genuinely applies: an EU-established manufacturer, an EU importer that actually brings the goods in, or an EU fulfilment service provider for the products it handles. Otherwise, the usual route is an authorised representative with a written mandate. That operator's details then go on the product or parcel and into every offer.

The UK has its own product-safety rules for Great Britain. They are separate from the GPSR and not covered here. The position for US sellers is the same: the United States is outside the EU.

What changes if you sell through Amazon, Etsy, eBay or Shopify?

Selling through a marketplace or a hosted shop does not move your GPSR duties to the platform:

So on Amazon, Etsy or eBay, the marketplace must give you a place to enter your EU responsible person and safety information, and you must fill it in correctly. On your own Shopify store, you publish the offer, so the GPSR online-offer information belongs on your product pages. We do not describe platforms' internal policies here; check each platform's current seller help. For the GPSR side, see our pages for Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Shopify sellers.

How should I sell on Amazon Europe?

The same EU rules apply in Amazon's EU stores as in any other online sale into the EU. Amazon adds its own process for entering the information:

1. Confirm your EU responsible person before your offers target EU customers.
2. Label the product: identifier, manufacturer details, instructions and safety information, and the EU operator's details on the product, packaging, parcel or an accompanying document.
3. Fill in Amazon's fields for the manufacturer, the responsible person and safety information on each affected offer. Amazon's public guidance points sellers to Account Health and then Regulatory Compliance for this.
4. Set up VAT, customs and EPR as described in the checklist above.

The Seller Central steps are in our Amazon GPSR checklist. For a Responsible Person for your Amazon products, see our Amazon GPSR page.

How should I sell on Etsy Europe?

The same EU rules apply to Etsy sales to EU buyers. Etsy gives you the fields to show the information:

1. Confirm your EU responsible person before your listings target EU customers.
2. Label the product with the same details as above.
3. Add the economic operator in Shop Manager in a browser; Etsy says this cannot currently be done in the Seller App. Then complete the manufacturer and product safety fields on each affected listing.
4. Do not rely on a handmade label: calling an item handmade, print-on-demand or digital does not create an automatic exemption.

The field-by-field steps are in our Etsy GPSR seller guide. For a Responsible Person for your Etsy products, see our Etsy GPSR page.

How should I sell in Europe? Step by step

Work through these steps in order. The EU-established operator comes before your first EU sale.

1. Map products and routes: manufacturer, ship-from location and every sales channel.
2. Identify the product laws: product-specific EU legislation and CE marking, otherwise the GPSR's general safety requirement.
3. Confirm the EU-established operator before your first EU sale.
4. Prepare safety documentation: an internal risk analysis and technical documentation before placing on the market.
5. Fix labels and packaging: identifier, manufacturer details, instructions and safety information, and the EU operator's details.
6. Update every listing with the four items the GPSR requires.
7. Set up VAT and customs using the official Commission pages or an adviser.
8. Check EPR registrations in each country you ship to.
9. Align your terms of sale with EU distance-selling rules.

How can Grüner Baum help?

Grüner Baum GmbH helps with one item on this checklist: the GPSR Responsible Person role and the product-safety work around it. The company is registered in Germany (HRB 52165, Vorstädter Str. 32, 55276 Oppenheim) and acts as EU Responsible Person for non-EU manufacturers where a written authorised-representative mandate is the correct GPSR route. The mandate is contracted directly with the German company.

Our published terms include the appointment as your EU Responsible Person under a written mandate; a pre-acceptance review of the manufacturer, supply chain, product risk, technical records, labels and online-offer information; an initial label and online-listing review for each accepted product family; weekly Safety Gate monitoring; and authority liaison, including one standard authority correspondence per contract year.

Plans start at €249 per year for one accepted low-risk product family, with unlimited SKUs within each accepted family. Business (€549/year) covers up to 5 families, Growth (€949/year) up to 20, and Enterprise starts at €1,650 per year. High-risk products and products under specific EU legislation are quoted after review. See our Responsible Person service and our pricing.

What we do not do: VAT, OSS/IOSS, customs, import duties, tax or EPR registration, and legal or tax advice. The service is not a product certificate and does not guarantee marketplace, customs or authority approval.

Frequently asked questions

What do I need to sell in Europe?

To sell consumer products online in the EU from the US or UK, you need a safe product that meets any product-specific EU law, an operator established in the EU that is responsible for it, correct labels, the required information in every online offer, and working arrangements for VAT, customs, producer-responsibility registrations and EU consumer rules such as the 14-day right of withdrawal.

How should I sell in Europe?

Step by step: identify which EU laws apply to your product, then confirm your EU-established operator before your first EU sale, because the GPSR says the product may not be placed on the market without one. Then fix labels and listings, and set up VAT, customs and EPR with the official authorities or qualified advisers.

How should I sell on Amazon Europe?

The same EU rules apply in Amazon's EU stores as anywhere else. Confirm your EU responsible person before your offers target EU customers, put the required details on the product or packaging, and fill in the manufacturer, responsible-person and safety fields Amazon shows for each affected offer. Amazon's public guidance points sellers to Account Health and then Regulatory Compliance for this.

How should I sell on Etsy Europe?

The same EU rules apply to Etsy sales to EU buyers. Confirm your EU responsible person before your listings target EU customers, label the product correctly, add the economic operator in Shop Manager in a browser and complete the manufacturer and product safety fields on each affected listing. Calling an item handmade does not create an automatic exemption.

Do UK sellers need an EU Responsible Person after Brexit?

Usually yes. The GPSR requires an operator established in the EU, and the UK is not an EU Member State. Unless an EU manufacturer, an EU importer or an EU fulfilment service provider genuinely covers the product, a UK seller normally needs an authorised representative with a written mandate.

Does selling through Amazon, Etsy, eBay or Shopify remove these duties?

No. The GPSR's online-offer rules apply to every business selling at a distance, and the GPSR requires online marketplaces to let traders provide the manufacturer details, the EU responsible person, product identification and warnings. The platform changes where you enter the information, not whether you need it.

Is an EU Responsible Person the same as a VAT or customs representative?

No. The GPSR responsible person handles product-safety tasks set by the EU market surveillance regulation. VAT, customs and producer-responsibility registrations are separate systems. For example, the Commission's One Stop Shop portal says a business established outside the EU must appoint an intermediary to use the VAT import scheme.

Do I need CE marking to sell in Europe?

Only if harmonised EU rules for your product require it. Your Europe states that CE marking is only required for products covered by harmonised EU rules that specifically mandate it, and must not be used otherwise. Products without such rules still have to be safe under the GPSR.

Official sources

This table gives the exact legal basis for each product-safety rule in this guide, checked against the consolidated GPSR text and the Official Journal text of the EU market surveillance regulation. The VAT, customs, producer-responsibility, CE-marking and consumer-rights points link to the official European Commission and Your Europe pages where they appear in the text; those pages were read on 5 October 2026.

This guide is a starting checklist and general information, not legal or tax advice; it does not replace product-specific legal analysis, tax or customs advice, or an authority decision.