Are vintage and second-hand items outside the EU regulated by the GPSR?

This is for people outside of the EU: Are vintage and second-hand items regulated by the GPSR?

All vintage/second-hand items that haven’t been listed for sale to the EU prior to Dec. 13th, 2024 are subject to the General Product Safety Regulation unless they are antique, art (designed to be art pieces, so nothing that “doubles” as art), and collectibles (rare and with historical and/or scientific value).

The exact lines for this are to be drawn by the court system, so if you are unsure the item you want to sell is exempt, then ensure it follows the GPSR. Following a strict reading of the GPSR, an item listed before Dec. 13th, 2024 needs to have been in your hands and fully available for purchase by an EU resident. It does not need to be physically within the EU.

Anything that was listed for the very first time on or after Dec. 13th, 2024 needs to abide by the GPSR.

One extra note of clarification that isn’t in this video is that this pre-Dec. 13th, 2024 exemption is only for items that were listed for sale while being physically outside of the EU. If you send items to the EU and then list them for sale, any items that have arrived at a forwarding/fulfillment center in the EU and then placed for sale on or after Dec. 13th, 2024 need to follow the GPSR.

As always, the GPSR is subject to interpretation by the courts, so nothing on this website can be taken as legal advice. Every situation is different, laws and regulations change, and the courts can strike down or have alternate readings of specific lines of laws and regulations. Even the European Commission itself refuses to accept legal responsibility for its own statements.

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