UK and EU product safety rules for US brands

Not always. US testing and marks don’t carry over, so each product has to meet the UK and EU rules for its category. Products covered by specific product laws, such as toys, electrical goods, radio equipment and machinery, need CE marking to be sold in the EU.

Great Britain has its own UKCA marking, but it continues to recognize CE marking for most of those product laws under regulations that came into force on October 1, 2024, so a CE marked product can usually be sold in both markets. Medical devices, construction products and a few other sectors have separate rules. Everything else sold to consumers falls under the general product safety rules described below.

Yes. Since December 13, 2024, the EU General Product Safety Regulation says a product can’t be placed on the EU market unless a business established in the EU is responsible for it. The same rule already applied to CE marked products.

That business can be a manufacturer established in the EU, an importer, an authorized representative with a written mandate from the manufacturer, or, where none of those is in the EU, a fulfillment service provider established there. Its name and contact details, including a postal address, go on the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document. Agree in writing who it is before your inventory ships.

Under the UK’s General Product Safety Regulations 2005, the producer is responsible for safety. If the manufacturer isn’t in the UK, its UK-based representative counts as the producer, and if there is none, the UK business that imports the product takes on the producer’s duties.

For products under the UKCA and CE rules, the importer’s name and postal address must be on the product. A temporary option to put it on packaging or paperwork instead applies only to goods imported from the European Economic Area and ends on December 31, 2027, so for inventory shipped from the US, plan to mark the product itself. The UK government consulted in 2026 on wider reforms, including treating overseas sellers that sell directly to UK customers as producers; when we checked on November 10, 2026, those were proposals, not rules in force.

In the EU, each product needs a type, batch or serial number that identifies it, and the manufacturer’s name, trade name or trademark with a postal and an email or web address. An importer adds its own details. Instructions and safety information must be in a language consumers can easily understand, which each member state decides; where a product is too small, the details can go on the packaging or in an accompanying document.

In Great Britain, the producer’s name and address and the product reference or batch go on the product or its packaging where reasonable, along with the importer’s details for products under the UKCA and CE rules. Information is in English.

For sales to EU customers, every online listing must clearly show the manufacturer’s name and contact details, the details of the EU responsible business when the manufacturer is outside the EU, a picture of the product, the information that identifies it, and any warnings or safety information in the language of the country you sell to.

Marketplaces such as Amazon ask for these details before a listing goes live in the EU, so it helps to have them ready for every product before your inventory arrives.

• Amazon FBA prep in the UK and EU →

Cosmetics and skincare need a responsible person in each market. In Great Britain it must be established in the UK and must notify each product through the government’s cosmetic notification service before it goes on sale. In the EU it must be established in the EU and notifies each product through the EU’s free Cosmetic Products Notification Portal before it goes on sale.

Packaging is the other rule that reaches almost every brand. The EU’s packaging regulation began to apply on August 12, 2026, and businesses selling into an EU country register for packaging producer responsibility with that country’s authority and report what they put on the market there. Check whether you need an authorized representative to do this for you.

• Skincare and beauty fulfillment →

Your product list with barcodes, the label details for each product, and the name of your EU responsible business and your UK importer or representative, so the paperwork that arrives with your inventory matches what is on the products.

Product compliance decisions sit with you and your advisers. We don’t test or certify products; we receive, store and ship them, and check each delivery against your paperwork when it arrives.

• How to ship inventory from the US to the UK and EU →