EU Authorised Representative vs Responsible Person: Who Has to Answer for Your Products in Europe
Every EU product regulation written in the last few years ends at the same place. Product safety, packaging, producer responsibility, the coming digital product passport: each one requires that somebody established inside the European Union is accountable for the product. Brands selling from outside Europe meet this requirement as a line item on a compliance checklist, appoint a service, and assume it is handled. Then a marketplace asks for a mandate covering a regulation the appointment never mentioned, and it turns out the role was narrower than the checklist implied.
The short answer: EU law requires an economic operator established in the Union to be responsible for each product. That can be an EU manufacturer, an EU importer, an authorised representative holding a written mandate, or in some cases a fulfilment service provider.
Key takeaways
- The obligation comes from Article 4 of the Market Surveillance Regulation, extended to nearly all consumer products by GPSR.
- An authorised representative is one of four ways to satisfy it, not the only way.
- Responsible person and authorised representative are not synonyms, though one entity can be both.
- The written mandate defines the scope, so a mandate for CE marking does not automatically cover GPSR.
- If no other operator is established in the EU, the fulfilment service provider can inherit the role.
Where the requirement comes from
The rule sits in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, the Market Surveillance Regulation. It says certain products may not be placed on the EU market unless an economic operator established in the Union is responsible for a defined set of tasks.
Originally that applied to a limited group of harmonised products, mostly CE-marked goods. The General Product Safety Regulation changed the scale of it. Article 16 of GPSR extends the same mechanism to effectively all consumer products, whether or not CE marking is involved, which is why brands that never dealt with product directives suddenly found themselves needing an EU-established party.
The tasks that party carries are specific rather than ceremonial. Keeping the declaration of conformity and technical documentation available to authorities, in some cases for ten years. Providing information to demonstrate compliance on request. Cooperating with authorities on corrective action. Informing authorities immediately where a product presents a risk. And under GPSR, verifying that labelling and traceability information is actually present.
The four ways to satisfy it
Two consequences follow from that list, and both save money.
If you already import through an EU entity, whether your own or an operator's, the responsible person requirement may already be satisfied without appointing anyone. Brands routinely buy a representative service they did not need because nobody checked the importer position first.
And the fourth option is a fallback rather than a plan. It exists so a product cannot slip through with nobody accountable, not because fulfilment providers want the job. Most will not take it, and building a compliance position on the assumption that your 3PL inherits it is a position that collapses the moment they decline.
Authorised representative and responsible person are not synonyms
This is the confusion that costs brands real money, and much of the published material compounds it by using the terms interchangeably.
Responsible person describes the function: the EU-established operator accountable under Article 16 of GPSR, whoever that happens to be. Authorised representative describes a specific appointment: a non-EU manufacturer formally mandating an EU entity to act for it. An authorised representative can be the responsible person, and usually is in practice, but only if the mandate covers those tasks.
There are also parallel roles under other regimes that do not automatically overlap. As Get Ready Compliance sets out, the EU authorised representative under the Market Surveillance Regulation and sector directives, the GPSR responsible person, and the UK responsible person established after Brexit are three distinct roles with different governing law. A brand selling CE-marked consumer goods in both the EU and UK can need all three.
The practical version of that point, from Compliance Gate's explanation of the role, is that a business outside the EU selling directly to EU consumers needs to appoint someone to act as the responsible person, and the appointment is only as good as the document behind it.
The mandate is where this goes wrong
The written mandate is the legal instrument, and its scope is the whole question.
Three failure modes recur. A mandate written years ago for CE marking compliance under a sector directive, which does not cover GPSR tasks, so the brand believes it is covered and is not. A mandate covering some product lines but not others, where the catalogue has grown since. And a representative appointed with no product documentation behind them, which matters because the role requires producing technical files on request, and a representative with nothing to produce is a contact address rather than a compliance position.
Worth checking three things in any existing appointment. Which regulations the mandate names explicitly. Which products it covers, and whether that list matches what you sell today. And whether the representative actually holds your technical documentation or merely agrees to forward requests to you.
Visibility is the other requirement people miss. The responsible person's name and contact details have to appear on the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document, and in online listings. Holding a valid appointment while the details appear nowhere fails inspection as surely as having no appointment at all, which is the point we make in our guide to GPSR and what it requires from sellers.
One role does not cover the others
Here is the part that catches brands out as the regulatory stack grows.
A GPSR responsible person covers product safety. It does not cover packaging. Extended producer responsibility requires registration with national schemes, country by country, and under the packaging regulation a distance seller counts as the producer in every market it ships to, with an authorised representative for packaging appointed per member state. That is a different appointment under a different regime.
Nor does it cover customs. Goods still need an importer of record to enter the EU, which is a separate role with its own establishment requirements. And the Digital Product Passport will add another layer, with the duty falling on the economic operator placing the product on the market.
So a non-EU brand selling consumer goods across several EU countries can be looking at a GPSR responsible person, packaging representatives per country, EPR registrations per country and per stream, VAT registrations wherever stock sits, and an importer of record. Each is individually manageable. The accumulation is what turns European expansion into a function rather than a project, which is the pattern we track in what is changing in EU market entry.
Choosing between a service and an operator
Two ways to solve this, and they suit different situations.
A dedicated representative service is a specialist that holds the mandate, keeps your documentation and answers authorities. It is cheap, it is quick, and it does precisely one thing. For a brand with an otherwise complete European setup that simply lacks an established entity, it is the efficient answer.
The alternative is an operator that is already the importer and seller in the market, where the responsible person position follows from the structure rather than being bought separately. This suits brands that also need the import, VAT, EPR and channel work done, because those obligations attach to the same entity and stop being separate contracts to manage.
The question that decides it is how much of the rest you have. If the representative is the only gap, buy the service. If the representative is one of eight gaps, buying eight services creates a coordination problem of its own, and the usual symptom is that nobody can say which party holds which obligation when an authority asks.
eBrands takes the operator route for the brands we work with. Our European entities act as Importer of Record and Merchant of Record, and we handle VAT, EPR and regulatory compliance as part of running the channels, so the party accountable for the product is the same party importing and selling it. The brand, the products and the inventory stay yours. If you hold a representative appointment and are not certain what it actually covers, that is worth reading before a marketplace asks, and our team is happy to look at it with you.
This article is general information rather than legal advice. Obligations depend on your products, markets and supply chain, so confirm your position with a qualified adviser.
Frequently asked questions
What is an EU authorised representative?
An entity established in the EU that a non-EU manufacturer appoints by written mandate to carry out specified compliance tasks, including holding technical documentation and acting as the contact point for market surveillance authorities.
Is an authorised representative the same as a responsible person?
No. Responsible person describes the function required under Article 16 of GPSR; authorised representative describes one way of filling it. They can be the same entity, but only where the mandate expressly covers the responsible person tasks.
Do I need one if I sell through an EU importer?
Often not. An EU importer placing the goods on the market can satisfy the requirement, so check your importer position before buying a separate service.
Can my fulfilment provider be the responsible person?
Only as a fallback where no manufacturer, importer or authorised representative is established in the EU, and many providers decline because of the liability. It is not a position to plan around.
Does one appointment cover GPSR, EPR and packaging?
No. These are separate regimes with separate obligations. A GPSR responsible person does not cover packaging producer responsibility, which requires registration per country, nor does it cover customs, which needs an importer of record.
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