Same thing I posted regarding Amazon earlier this year. Now it's eBay saying the same thing.
What you need to know
Navigating a new regulation can be challenging, which is why we want to let you know in advance about the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) that goes into effect December 13, 2024. It introduces specific safety-related information that businesses must provide when selling to buyers in the European Union (EU) and Northern Ireland (NI). If you don’t sell in or ship to these regions, the GPSR isn’t applicable to you.
While there’s no action you need to take at this time, we encourage you to learn more about this regulation by visiting our General Product Safety Regulation page.
Scope of the GPSR
The General Product Safety Regulation applies to new, second-hand, repaired, and reconditioned items sold on eBay and all other marketplaces. There are few products and categories that are excluded from the GPSR—you can view the entire list of excluded categories on our Seller Center page.
Complying with the GPSR
The GPSR requires all business sellers to add the following information for eligible items available for sale in the EU and NI:
The product manufacturer's name and contact information
If the manufacturer isn’t located in the EU or NI, you’ll have to indicate an EU or NI-based Responsible Person or entity, along with their name and contact details
Any relevant product information like model number, pictures, type, and CE marking
Product safety and compliance information like safety warnings, labels, and product manuals in the local language
We understand that collecting this information can be time consuming, but adding it to your listings will ensure you comply with the regulation and can continue selling to buyers in these regions. It’ll also help you gain * your buyers' trust and create a loyal customer base in the EU and NI.
Next steps
We’re working on a new feature that’s designed to simplify the process of adding the required information to one or multiple your listings. We’ll notify you in July when you can start updating this information to your listings. In the meantime, we recommend that you start collecting this information so you’ll be ready to comply with the regulation once it goes into effect.
eBay Seller Updates Summer 2024
On the current course of things, this will absolutely devastate product selection when ordering online in NI.
Some comments from sellers discussing this on the eBay Community Seller Board:
I predict the buying section of these community boards will see plenty of activity from irate Northern Irish buyers come January once they realise they can no longer purchase from a large number of British businesses due to NI being on their list of excluded postage locations. Bizarrely, it will almost certainly be easier for British businesses to sell to Ireland (Eire) through eBay's GSP – where Pitney Bowes would be the exporter of record – than directly to Northern Ireland. I can't believe what a mess it all is.
Like you, my initial reaction, as I mainly sell vintage PC components acquired used as part of job lots, is that I will have to switch the EU and NI off in December. This is sad and very frustrating. I can see how the "Excluded locations" function will allow me to exclude the member countries of the EU and NI. I am hoping that this Excluded locations function will then trump the "Destinations" function that I use when selecting postal services – I would still want to select e.g. "All Countries In Europe" so that I at least caught all non-EU European countries. Does anyone have any thoughts about how these two functions interact – am I right in thinking that the Excluded locations function trumps the Destinations function?
The big problem is Northern Ireland as under the Windsor Framework NI is in the EU's customs union which means goods exported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland must comply with all applicable EU laws (including the GPSRs) unless the goods "are not intended to be moved beyond Northern Ireland". The latter part of that sentence should imply a British business selling goods to consumers residing in Northern Ireland only needs to comply with regulations that apply specifically to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland but that is not at all how it is working in practice. What is actually happening is goods sent from GB to NI consumers do not need a customs declaration – as there is no (EU) VAT or duty due – but otherwise the whole idea of a "green lane" for such goods appears to be complete tosh. For a start there's the whole certification (CE/UKCA/UKNI) mess. The UK will now recognise CE certification indefinitely but a British business selling goods requiring certification to Northern Ireland must ensure they are CE and UKNI marked; UKCA marking is not currently recognised in NI. Similarly, goods sold from NI to GB requiring certification require CE or CE and UKNI marks depending upon where the certifying body is registered. It does make me wonder if the entire purpose of the UKCA mark has been lost; maybe it should have simply been GBCA to save all the hassle?
Apparently, this just doesn't affect NI, but is a barrier to trade within the EU itself in regards to the sale of second hand products:
Im now at the stage I think this is a whole load of crazy. I'm catching up with the rest of you on the thread and have found article 16, regarding economic operator established in the Union.
Its very anti green/ anti circular economy. It means anything not brand new from a big label becomes really hard to sell.
Why on earth would eBay sign up to this and not be fighting it? It could kill the platform in Europe.
Its going to be very hard to sell anything second hand into Europe unless near new with all original packaging and product information. For smaller manufacturers without a European presence – like the many tens of thousands of UK small business' would have to employ some agency within Europe to pen push – unless we can loby our government to set up a on behalf of UK manufacturing economic operator with an online presence we can register our products on for the pen push activities.
by JimJamSam