What does the Digital Services Act require of online marketplaces?
The DSA requires marketplaces that let consumers contract with traders to collect specified trader details, make best efforts to verify them, design interfaces so traders can provide required product information, and notify affected buyers when they learn that an illegal product was sold. Very large platforms can face added risk-management duties.
For an operator, these duties become product decisions: required fields, listing blocks, exception reviews, buyer notices and evidence retention.
Source: Digital Services Act, Articles 30–32
What is the GPSR, and who needs an EU responsible person?
The General Product Safety Regulation has applied since 13 December 2024. It covers non-food consumer products and supplements sector-specific rules where they do not cover a risk. A product in scope needs an EU-established responsible economic operator, which can be a manufacturer, importer, authorised representative or fulfilment service provider depending on the supply chain.
Marketplaces also need a Safety Gate contact point and processes for authority orders about dangerous products.
Source: General Product Safety Regulation
Do I need EPR registration in every EU country I sell in?
EPR obligations are country- and product-stream specific. They depend on the goods, whether the national rule treats you as the producer, and where you first make them available. Electrical equipment, batteries and packaging have separate schemes.
A country-by-product matrix is a practical starting point before choosing markets or channels.
Sources: EU guidance on WEEE and EU Batteries Regulation
Do I need a VAT registration in every European market?
The One Stop Shop can let a business report eligible cross-border consumer sales through one EU member state. Holding stock in another country will commonly create a local registration requirement there. Eligible low-value imports can use the Import One Stop Shop.
The answer follows the supply chain: where the business is established, where stock is held, where goods enter the EU and who is treated as the supplier.
Source: European Commission VAT One Stop Shop guidance
When does a marketplace become responsible for its sellers’ products?
Responsibility depends on the rule and the role the marketplace performs. Under the DSA, the conditional liability exemption does not apply under consumer protection law when the presentation would lead an average consumer to believe the platform, or a trader under its control, supplied the product.
The revised Product Liability Directive applies similar distributor rules to some platforms for products placed on the market after 9 December 2026. Separate DSA and GPSR duties can apply even when the marketplace is not the seller.
Sources: DSA, Article 6(3) and Product Liability Directive
What changed for low-value imports into the EU?
Since 1 July 2026, the EU no longer grants customs duty relief to e-commerce consignments worth no more than €150 that are sent from outside the EU directly to consumers. An interim €3 customs duty applies for each tariff item category in a qualifying parcel until 1 July 2028, unless extended. A separate handling fee is also planned.
Sellers should recheck landed cost, tariff classification, fulfilment location and pricing.
Source: European Commission guidance, June 2026
How do you work with lawyers, tax advisers and testing houses?
I connect specialist advice to business decisions, product changes, responsibilities, controls and the sequence of work. When a legal opinion, tax filing, product test, certification or local registration is needed, I help define the question and coordinate the right specialist.