43 Taiwan Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association need to establish an internal Product Compliance Management Process to meet the requirements of the new GPSR without any undue delay. Some elements of such Process are already described in Article 20, but not in an exhaustive manner. Conclusion Given the complexity of the new GPSR and the sheer abundance of obligations imposed on various categories of economic operators and providers of online marketplaces, it is certainly not too soon for Taiwanese manufacturers and exporters doing directly or indirectly business in Europe ( which in this case covers the European Economic Area (the 27 EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) to start with a review of existing product safety-related processes and tools at individual company level in order to find out whether they need to be changed, amended and/or updated by also looking at the whole supply chain. The GPSR sets a very short deadline once it applies from Dec. 13, 2024, onward, and all such measures and steps will undoubtedly take time. This is true in particular if external business partners such as distributors, importers and retailers, external legal advisors and a company’s insurance partners need to be involved. To quote Walt Disney: “The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing.” Respectively, in a very much abbreviated version and one more fitting for the sporting goods community, remember the Nike slogan: “Just do it!” Dr. Jochen M. Schaefer is a German practicing attorney based in the Munich area. For several years, he has been and is representing the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) and the European Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (FESI) as their legal counsel. He also chairs the WFSGI’s Legal Committee and is co-chair of the FESI’s digital working group. At the individual client level, he represents a significant number of well-known German and international brands within and beyond the sporting goods sector (including the bicycle industry). He is a specialist in national and international distribution topics, intellectual property (IP) and risk management issues, and the drafting and negotiation of compre- hensive contracts at the operational level; in particular in the area of European selective distribution schemes. In case of any questions about this article (or in general), he can be reached at sj@sjlegal. de and at +49 151 1640 7932.
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