General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR): What Authors and Publishers Need to Know

The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) is a new EU regulation that applies from December 13, 2024, ensuring that only safe products—including digital content like books, e-books, and audiobooks—are available to consumers in the European Union.

 


 

👥 Who Does It Affect?

The GPSR assigns responsibilities to all parties in the supply chain:

Authors and Publishers → considered manufacturers

Retail stores/platforms (e.g., Amazon, Apple) → may be importers or distributors

 


 

✍️ Your Responsibilities as an Author or Publisher

If you distribute your books, e-books, or audiobooks to EU readers, you are required to:

•✅ Conduct a basic internal risk assessment (e.g., content safety, metadata accuracy)

•✅ Maintain technical documentation (e.g., product format, ISBN, author info)

•✅ Include a product identifier (such as an ISBN)

•✅ Clearly display your name, postal address, and email in the product metadata or file

•✅ If outside the EU, provide the name and contact info of an EU-based responsible person

•✅ Retain product documentation for 10 years

 


 

🧾 What You Don’t Need to Do

You do not need to:

•Handle consumer-level safety incidents (that’s the importer’s job)

•File reports unless requested by EU authorities

•Submit documentation unless requested

 


 

🛒 What About PublishDrive?

PublishDrive does not sell content directly to EU consumers, so we are not considered an importer or distributor under GPSR.

However, we support you by:

•Ensuring that metadata fields (like ISBN, author name) are available

•Informing you of regulatory obligations

 


 

✅ What Should You Do Now?

•Make sure your products are labeled and traceable

•Keep a record of your publication’s basic information (ISBN, author, format)

•Be ready to confirm GPSR compliance if requested

 


 

📩 If you have any questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to contact our support team.