41 Taiwan Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association operators – and to come up with the argument that one cannot afford financially to establish such measures will neither be accepted by EU safety surveillance authorities nor by European brands who have outsourced their manufacturing processes and went offshore. The EU's GPSR and products imported from outside the European Economic Area. What's the impact? Under the new GPSR, any non-European Economic Area (EEA) based seller of products offered and sold to European consumers needs to have a responsible economic operator (authorized representative) established within the EU. This will have a major impact on the DTC distance sale business models of also Taiwanese manufacturers and exporters. It will certainly not be sufficient to just appoint a single person residing in the EU, since the tasks, responsibilities and liabilities of such a person will require much more than just providing an EU address. The EU's GPSR and the special focus on online marketplaces In view of the significant growth of online marketplaces and the reduced significance of traders offering products on their own (DTC) web stores – the percentage decreased from 77 percent in 2010 to 60 percent in 2022, according to the HDE Online Monitor 2022 - the EU Commission has put a special emphasis on this market segment. Article 3 (14) of the GPSR defines the provider of an online marketplace (POMP”) as “a provider of an intermediary service using an online interface, which allows consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders for the sale of products.” Under this definition, any BTC online platform, be it websites or other applications such as mobile apps, operated by a POMP falls within this definition. Once again, there is no exemption for small online businesses in this area. POMPs fall under their own special category within the EU’s GPSR. They will be affected by the new law in terms of numerous new obligations they will have to meet, which include: • the duty to register with the Safety Gate Portal; • the establishment of internal processes and tools relating to product safety requirements; • the obligation to remove unsafe or even dangerous products within extremely short periods from
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