GPSR language requirements: which languages your instructions and safety information need

1The short version

• The General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), Regulation (EU) 2023/988, has applied since December 13, 2024 (Article 52). It sets the baseline safety rules for consumer products sold in the EU, in shops and online.
• Manufacturers and importers must make sure each product comes with clear instructions and safety information in a language consumers can easily understand, as determined by the member state where it is sold (Articles 9(7) and 11(4)).
• The GPSR names no languages. Each EU country decides, so the answer can differ for every market you ship to.
• Online offers must show the product's warnings and safety information in that language too (Article 19(d)), and online marketplaces must let sellers show them on the listing (Article 22(9)(d)).
• A digital version, for example behind a QR code, comes in addition to the documents that travel with the product, not instead of them (Article 21).
• Machinery, electrical equipment and other products covered by specific EU product laws follow those laws' instruction rules instead, but the GPSR's rules for online offers still apply to them (Article 2(1)).

2Who must do what

The duty runs through the whole supply chain, and which line applies to you depends on your role. One exception applies to everyone: the duty doesn't apply where the product can be used safely and as intended without instructions and safety information (Article 9(7)). The Commission's guidelines give knives as an example of a product whose risks consumers already know.

• Manufacturers ensure that the product “is accompanied by clear instructions and safety information in a language which can be easily understood by consumers, as determined by the Member State in which the product is made available on the market” (Article 9(7)).
• Importers have the same duty for the products they import (Article 11(4)).
• Distributors, such as retailers, must verify before selling that the manufacturer and, where there is one, the importer have met it (Article 12(1)).
• If you sell a product under your own name or trademark, the GPSR treats you as the manufacturer, with the manufacturer's obligations under Article 9 (Article 13(1)). That includes private-label sellers on marketplaces.
• Online marketplaces must design their listing pages so that sellers can provide the warnings and safety information in the required language, and so that consumers can see them on the listing (Article 22(9)(d)).

3Online offers: what every listing must show

Article 19 applies whenever a product is sold online or through other distance sales, in your own shop or on a marketplace. The offer must clearly and visibly show the manufacturer's name and contact addresses, the EU responsible person where the manufacturer is outside the EU, information that identifies the product, including a picture, and, in point (d):

“any warning or safety information to be affixed to the product or to the packaging or included in an accompanying document in accordance with this Regulation or the applicable Union harmonisation legislation in a language which can be easily understood by consumers, as determined by the Member State in which the product is made available on the market.”

In practice, each market's listing carries the same warnings as the box, in that market's language. The words “or the applicable Union harmonisation legislation” mean the rule also covers machinery, electrical goods and other products under specific EU laws.

The Commission's guidelines explain the aim: consumers should get “the same product and safety information when buying a product online or through other types of distance sales, just as they would have in a bricks-and-mortar shop.” For video on listings, see our page on setup videos for Amazon listings.

4Which language in which country

The GPSR doesn't choose the language. The member state where the product is sold does, and the Commission's guidelines say it the same way: the language “is determined by the Member State on whose market you place the product.” National rules we have checked at the source:

• Spain: article 18.2 of the consumer protection law (Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007) says goods must include, come with or, as a last resort, let consumers obtain clear information on their essential characteristics, in accessible formats, including (e) instructions for correct use, warnings and foreseeable risks. Article 18.3 requires the mandatory labeling and presentation information of goods sold in Spain to appear “al menos, en castellano”, at least in Spanish, apart from exceptions set by law or regulation.
• Every other country: check the national rule at its source before you print. We list only the rules we have read in the official text.

5When other EU product laws take over

The GPSR is a safety net. Article 2(1) says it applies where no specific EU provisions with the same objective regulate a product's safety. For products covered by specific EU product laws (“Union harmonisation legislation”), it adds: “(a) Chapter II does not apply insofar as the risks or categories of risks covered by Union harmonisation legislation are concerned; (b) Chapter III, Section 1, Chapters V and VII and Chapters IX to XI do not apply.”

Chapter III, Section 1 holds Articles 9 to 18, including the language duty in Article 9(7). So for these products, the instructions and their language follow the product's own law. Articles 19 to 21 and the marketplace rules in Article 22 still apply, so the listing must still show the warnings in the language of the country of sale.

For example, electrical equipment under the Low Voltage Directive must come with instructions and safety information in a language consumers and other end-users can easily understand, as determined by the member state concerned (Directive 2014/35/EU, Article 6(7)). Machinery gets a digital option from January 20, 2027, under conditions: see our guide to the Machinery Regulation 2027.

Furniture, childcare articles and gymnastic equipment are the Commission's own examples of products with no specific EU safety requirements, so the GPSR applies to them in full. Whether your product falls under a specific law is a classification question for your compliance team; we don't make that call.

6A checklist for selling in the EU

1. List your markets Every EU country where you sell, in shops and online, including through marketplaces.
2. Classify each product GPSR only, or covered by a specific EU law such as the Machinery Regulation or the Low Voltage Directive? That decides which instruction rules apply (Article 2(1)).
3. Find each country's language rule The member state decides (Article 9(7)), so check each national rule at its source.
4. Print what must travel with the product Instructions and safety information in every language your markets require, on the product or in the box.
5. Fix every listing Show the warnings and safety information on each market's listing, in its language (Article 19(d)), in the fields your marketplace provides (Article 22(9)(d)).
6. Add a digital layer if you want one A QR code on the product or packaging can open the same information, more languages and accessible formats, on top of the printed documents (Article 21).
7. Keep one source of truth Copy the safety notes unchanged from the manual into the listing, the QR page and any video, and update them together.

7Digital information, QR codes and where video fits

Article 21 lets businesses add a digital version: they “may additionally make the information referred to in those provisions available in a digital format by means of electronic technical solutions clearly visible on the product or, where that is not possible, on its packaging or in a document accompanying the product.” The article opens “Without prejudice to Article 9(5), (6) and (7)”, so the printed instructions and safety information stay. Recital 32 names the kind of tool it means: “electronic solutions, such as a QR or data matrix code.”

The digital information must be in a language consumers in that country can easily understand, “including in accessible formats for persons with disabilities.” For a video guide, captions and a text version help here.

A change people ask about: the EU's Omnibus IV package would amend 20 product laws. According to the Council, it would let manufacturers give instructions for use in digital format instead of paper, with safety information on paper where there is a risk of serious harm to consumers. The GPSR is not among the laws it would amend. The package is agreed but not yet law: Parliament's plenary vote is forecast for November 23, 2026.

A setup video is not the legal instructions, and it doesn't replace them. Next to the printed documents, it shows each step in the buyer's language and can repeat the manual's safety notes where they apply. Our QR video manuals open in the phone's language from one code on the box, and we localize the voice and on-screen text into 20+ languages. We make the video and the QR page; we don't write, translate or certify your printed instructions.

General information, not legal advice. Checked against the official texts on October 16, 2026.

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