GPSR horror (argh!) – OnTableTop – Home of Beasts of War

GPSR horror (argh!)

Supported by (Turn Off)

Related Companies:

Fogou Models

Tagged: gpsr

This topic contains 5 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by redscope 11 minutes ago.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Author

Posts
November 18, 2024 at 5:16 pm #1903505
sundancer
42908xp

2
Well, this comes as a surprise. At least to me:

Well, if you are linked to the production side of the hobby you may have heard of the imminent (From December) introduction of the EU’s GPSR product safety regulations. These have been due to come in for quite some time, but as many of us in the hobby small business world are not international trade law experts many of us have been taken by surprise by just what the consequences of these changes will mean.

I will not attempt to lay out my fractured understanding here, but suffice to say these are currently extremely significant, and the practical upshot is that many of us are ceasing to ship orders to the EU and indeed Northern Ireland before the end of November.

I will be doing the same, and so this means I will be sending out all EU pledges right away in order to make sure they get to you before the start of the GPSR regulations.

I wish I could announce the beginning of fulfillment in a more cheerful way, but here we are! I have every intention of getting Fogou stuff to the EU again as soon as possible, but will simply be stepping away from the whole market until a practical solution is found.

I really don’t know what GPSR is about so I had to search online for it.

From what I understand the General Product Safety Regulation now demands from every manufacturer to make extensive research to see whether a product is potentially harmful or not.

CHAPTER III

OBLIGATIONS OF ECONOMIC OPERATORS
SECTION 1

Article 9

Obligations of manufacturers
1. When placing their products on the market, manufacturers shall ensure that those products have been designed and manufactured in accordance with the general safety requirement laid down in Article 5.
2. Before placing their products on the market, manufacturers shall carry out an internal risk analysis and draw up technical documentation containing at least a general description of the product and its essential characteristics relevant for assessing its safety.
No sure how that applies to Fogou but neither seems like they do. Has any other hobby company reacted to this? Will this be the next “kick in the nut” for the hobby community after Brexit? Where is a lawyer when you need one.
November 18, 2024 at 6:54 pm #1903520

grantinvanman
2159xp

0

Well, that sounds like a massive bureaucratic nightmare of epic proportions.

BREXIT just keeps looking worse, sadly. And the EU looks more and more truly distinct from the UK.

A strange time indeed.

November 18, 2024 at 8:00 pm #1903529

scribbs
14506xp

0

I’ve seen similar messages from a couple of the smaller scale indie companies (Statuesque, Mammoth Miniatures) too.

Broadly speaking GPSR requires adequate safety labelling on goods, which isn’t that much of a big deal, and most companies will already be following that.

But I think the sticking point is a new requirement – “A key change is the requirement to appoint an Authorised Representative, who will serve as a contact point for market surveillance authorities in case of product issues.”

Small companies aren’t sure what this requirement means in the context of selling items in the EU. I also have no idea whether EU companies are equally baffled, or that the emphasis is more on the UK companies as they are now non-EU manufacturers.

November 18, 2024 at 8:05 pm #1903530

scribbs
14506xp

0

For clarity, this is the part of the GPSR amendment that as I understand it has people worried.

Responsible person. Manufacturers that are not based in the EU must establish an operator within the EU that is responsible for compliance with the GPSR, and they should be identified on the product or its packaging. Their role will include being the point of contact for supervisory authorities enforcing GPSR obligations and conducting compliance checks of the product’s documentation and safety information.

November 18, 2024 at 8:19 pm #1903539

limburger
21673xp

0

Everyone with a brain is worried about this one.

It’s the sort of stuff that lovers of red tape dream off, but serves zero practical purpose.

It’s like the ‘data privacy officer’ (yeah … that’s a thing).

Only big companies have the resources to waste on this bureaucratic nonsense.
Everyone else will either do nothing or point towards the same dude that’s running the show anyway.

All it does is add another layer of expensive management for something that good companies already do and the bad ain’t gonna fix.

Never mind that there’s only so much you can do if your suppliers give false/incomplete information.

I expect a lot of small companies inside of the EU to stop as a result as well, because it’s too much work and only increases the cost of doing business.

It most certainly won’t do what it is designed to do : stop cheap dangerous Chinese crap from being sold.

November 18, 2024 at 8:21 pm #1903540
redscope
Participant

2711xp

0
My general view is that the new GPSR rules are a good thing. They are not designed to trip up hobby companies we have to look at the wider picture of what is going on in retail with companies like Timu, Ali Express and now Amazon had started to look at the same model. Not suggesting they are doing anything illegal but the items on the store could raise saftey questions.

In terms of the EU to be clear this applies to the EU and any product for sale in that market including those produced in the EU. Hence Brexit is not the issue in fact this this GPSR does not applied to the UK. However it does show how dumb Brexit was because even outside of EU, UK companies are still impacted by the ruling we just no longer have a say.

I think the like the VAT rules it will take some time for the hobby companies to adjust to the new rules and yes prices will rise due to additional admin costs. On the plus side maybe it can reduce cheap knock off products in the hobby which is only likely to rise in the future.

Finally if you think this is bad wait until you know who gets into office and starts to put his 60% tarriff on imports from china and 20% on the EU. That is going to have a far bigger impact on the hobby come Jan.
- This reply was modified 9 minutes ago by redscope.
Author

Posts

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.