GPSR for Handmade & Craft Sellers: What Actually Applies to You

You make 40 candles a month. You ship maybe a dozen to customers in France and Germany. Surely a regulation aimed at factories and importers doesn't apply to a one-person studio?

It does. The EU's General Product Safety Regulation (Regulation 2023/988) has been in force since December 2024, and it makes no allowance for how small you are or how handmade your work is. Heritage Crafts UK put it plainly: GPSR "introduces new obligations for businesses selling products in the EU, with significant implications for small heritage crafts businesses, especially those who occasionally sell to EU customers."

This guide explains what actually applies to you, why the "I only sell 10 items" defence doesn't hold, and the cheapest legal way through. If you want the full background first, start with what GPSR is.

Handmade is explicitly in scope

There's no grey area here. Amazon's own seller guidance lists the products GPSR covers, and it spells it out: "Most non-food consumer products that are offered for sale in the EU are in scope of the GPSR, including used, repaired, and reconditioned products, handmade products, print books, and spare parts."

Handmade products. Named directly. Craftybase, which builds bookkeeping software for makers, says the same thing without hedging: "If you sell non-food handmade products to EU customers, GPSR applies to you — regardless of where you're based or how small your operation is."

So the question isn't whether your soap, your ceramics, your knitted goods, or your framed prints are covered. They are. The question is what you have to do about it.

The "I only sell 10 items" objection

This is the most common reason makers assume they're safe, so it's worth killing directly.

There is no SME exemption. When asked, the European Parliament confirmed that GPSR "does not make any exemptions for small and medium enterprises and very small enterprises (SMEs and VSEs)." All economic operators carry the same baseline duties. A studio of one is an economic operator.

There is no volume threshold either. Selling ten items a year to the EU triggers the obligations just as selling ten thousand does. The regulation cares about whether a product reaches an EU consumer, not how many.

And it's being enforced. Craftybase noted in early 2026 that "for small makers, the implications go well beyond updating a listing or two. It's been running for over a year now — and marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon are actively enforcing it." Marketplaces are pulling listings that lack the required information. So "no one will check" stopped being true a while ago.

Webinterpret summed up the reach: GPSR "has also affected small businesses that offer creative products, such as ceramic mugs or framed digital prints, by making them responsible for the safety of those products." Responsibility is the operative word. The maker is now the one accountable for safety.

What you actually need

For a small handmade business shipping to the EU, the practical list is shorter than the panic suggests. Four things.

An EU Responsible Person. If you're based outside the EU (UK, US, anywhere), you need a person or company inside the EU who acts as the safety contact for your products. This is the part most makers can't avoid and can't do themselves. Budget services run roughly €150–500 a year, with entry-level plans around €199. We'll come back to the cheapest option below. For the full picture, read our guide on the GPSR Responsible Person.

To be clear about what we do: EUProof generates your compliance documents. We are not your Responsible Person and we don't sell that service. You appoint an RP separately, then we produce the paperwork that names them correctly.

Product labelling. Your packaging or product needs your business name, your Responsible Person's name and EU address, a batch or model number so a specific run can be traced, and any safety warnings the product calls for. Candles need a "keep away from children" warning. Toys for small children need choking-hazard language. See our labelling requirements guide for the specifics.

Technical documentation. This is a risk assessment plus a product description. The good news for makers: low-risk handmade items can usually self-certify without sending anything to a lab. You write down what the product is, what could go wrong, and how you've handled it. A candle's risk assessment covers the fire hazard and the essential oils. A ceramic mug's covers whether the glaze is food-safe. Our risk assessment guide walks through how to do this for craft goods.

Traceability. Keep a record of which batch went to which buyer, so that if a safety issue ever surfaces you can identify the affected products. For a small maker this can be a spreadsheet.

The cheapest path that's still legal

Here's the part the trade associations keep asking for and the regulation doesn't yet provide. Heritage Crafts UK said it directly: "Simplified compliance pathways, such as self-certification for certain product categories, would help small craftspeople remain competitive." Until that arrives, you assemble the cheap version yourself.

The lowest-cost route looks like this:

1. Use a budget Responsible Person service. Entry-level plans start around €199 a year for a single product type.
2. Self-certify your low-risk products. Write your own risk assessment and technical file rather than paying for testing you don't need.
3. Print labels for your packaging. Materials cost around €20.

That's roughly €220 a year total. For a maker doing meaningful EU sales, that's the price of staying in the market. EUProof handles step two and the document side of step three: you answer questions about your product, and we generate the risk assessment and the technical documentation formatted to GPSR's requirements. A formal Declaration of Conformity is only mandatory for products covered by specific EU harmonisation legislation, such as CE-marked toys or electronics. For GPSR-only handmade goods it's a self-declaration that some marketplaces request rather than a statutory requirement, and we generate it too where a marketplace asks for one. You still appoint the RP yourself. See how the documents come together in about five minutes and our pricing for where the Starter tier sits.

If you're not sure GPSR even reaches you, our Am I Affected check takes a minute and tells you straight.

When you might just stop selling to the EU

Not every maker should comply. If the EU is a tiny fraction of your orders, the honest answer might be to switch it off. Many handmade sellers already have. On Etsy you can disable your "Europe" shipping profiles so EU buyers can't complete checkout, and the obligations stop applying because you're no longer placing products on that market.

That's a real, legal choice, not a loophole. Weigh your EU revenue against roughly €220 a year plus the time to label and document. If the maths doesn't work, turning off EU shipping is fine. If it does, the path above is the cheapest way to keep those customers.

What's not covered

A few quick clarifications, because handmade catalogues are mixed.

Digital products are out of scope. Ebooks, PDF sewing patterns, downloadable templates — none of these are covered, because GPSR governs physical consumer products. Sell the same pattern as a printed booklet and the physical version is in scope. More detail in our digital products guide.

In-person sales only count when the venue is in the EU. A non-EU maker attending a craft fair physically located in the EU must comply for what they sell there. A US maker selling only at local US fairs is untouched by GPSR.

The takeaway is simple. If your handmade goods reach EU consumers, you're in scope, no matter how small you are. The cheapest compliant path costs about €220 a year, and most of the documentation you can prepare yourself. Sort out who your Responsible Person is, then generate the paperwork.

This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm your obligations with a qualified advisor or your Responsible Person.