Government draft amending the German Product Safety Act

Up to now, the German Product Safety Act (Produktsicherheitsgesetz) (“Product Safety Act”) implemented the General Product Safety Directive (Directive 2001/95/EC) for consumer products. Since this directive was repealed and replaced by the General Product Safety Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/988, “GPSR”) with effect from 13 December 2024, there was a need to adjust national product safety laws to reflect this in all the EU Member States. It was not possible to complete the legislative procedure on this during the last legislative period, which is why the current German government presented its new draft of an amending law to modify the Product Safety Act and other product safety provisions on 10 October 2025 (Bundesrat Document: 548/25, or “Draft Product Safety Act”).

Overview

As an EU regulation, the GPSR is directly applicable in all Member States, unlike its predecessor statute. The GPSR comprehensively governs non-harmonised consumer products and the associated obligations of economic operators. As a result, the German Draft Product Safety Act has to be adjusted to remove outdated provisions: it is now neither necessary nor possible to enact national rules on this. The individual Member States are also still responsible for implementing provisions of the GPSR, and thus they have to be implemented in the Draft Product Safety Act at a national level.

The provisions of the German Product Safety Act which act as an interface to the national product safety regulations and continue to serve the implementation of the relevant European directives (e.g. the Machinery Directive and Toys Directive) will also remain untouched.

The significance of the Draft Product Safety Act for non-harmonised B2B products will also remain unchanged. While many B2B products fall into the harmonised area, in rare cases where no European harmonising legislation exists, there is still a need for safety-related product requirements to ensure a high level of protection. On this point, the product-related approach, specifying only objective product requirements, will continue to apply (section 3(2) of the Draft Act) rather than specific subjective obligations for manufacturers, importers or distributors. However, under section 1(4) of the Draft Act certain items will still be exempted from the scope of the law. These include antiques, used products that must be repaired or reconditioned before use and on which information is provided, military products and containers as transportable pressure equipment, packaging and tanks for transporting dangerous goods, where they are subject to transport regulations.

Adjustments to rules on non-harmonised consumer products

The German Product Safety Act will become a residual statute where non-harmonised consumer products are concerned. Since 13 December 2024, the formal and substantive requirements for non-harmonised consumer products and the associated duties of economic operators have arisen directly from the GPSR. Against this background, the general safety requirement in section 3(2), first sentence of the Draft Product Safety Act will in future only apply to products which are not subject to the GPSR or other harmonising legislation. The presumption of conformity when complying with harmonised standards also arises directly from Article 7(1) GPSR, rendering section 4(2) of the German Product Safety Act obsolete.

Language requirements for information under the GPSR

Section 6 of the Product Safety Act, which up to now standardised additional requirements for the provision of consumer products, will also be significantly affected. Consumer product-related information and labelling law (up to now in section 3(4) and section 6(1), first sentence, paragraph 1 of the Product Safety Act) and the pre- and post-market obligations of economic operators (section 6(1), first sentence, paragraphs 2 and 3 and section 6(2) to (6) of the Product Safety Act) will now both follow directly from the obligations of economic operators in Article 9 onwards of the GPSR. Section 6 of the Draft Product Safety Act will therefore have a completely new regulatory content. In future, this provision will deal solely with the issue of the “language of information, instructions and warnings” and, in line with the Member States’ scope for implementation, specify German as the required language for the information to be provided under the GPSR (especially instructions for use).

Rules on penalties

Article 44 GPSR requires Member States to impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for infringements of the GPSR committed by economic operators and providers of online marketplaces. Against this background, section 28(2) of the Draft Product Safety Act contains a list of fines covering 32 offences constituting infringements of the GPSR. The maximum fine comes to €10,000 or €100,000 depending on the infringement. Under strict conditions, this will be upgraded to a criminal offence in accordance with section 29 of the Draft Act.

Powers of market surveillance authorities over providers of online marketplaces

Article 22(4) GPSR requires Member States to extend the powers of market surveillance authorities to issue orders to online marketplaces. Up to now, these powers only applied if there was a serious risk (Article 14(4)(k) of the Market Surveillance Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, implemented nationally in section 7(1), first sentence of the German Market Surveillance Act (Marktüberwachungsgesetz (“Market Surveillance Act”)). This authority is now to encompass all dangerous products and will be included in section 25(3) of the Draft Product Safety Act in the future. In terms of legislative content, this authority would fit better into the Market Surveillance Act, since the coexistence of powers over providers of online marketplaces in the Draft Product Safety Act and Market Surveillance Act fails to add legal clarity.

Rules on GS mark to be maintained

The GS (“tested safety”) mark, which is the only nationally regulated quality mark in Germany, will also continue under the Draft Product Safety Act. Only minor changes are to be made. Section 23(1), third sentence of the Draft Act will require that the decision on whether to award the GS mark can only be made by the staff of a GS body, who are bound to it by an employment contract and must be on its payroll. The prohibition on unauthorised use and advertising in section 24(2), second sentence of the Draft Product Safety Act is also to be extended.

Upshot

Due to the new European Market Surveillance Regulation and the GPSR, which has been in force since mid-December of last year, the German Product Safety Act has become obsolete as the central legal basis for product safety in Germany. The requirements for consumer products, as well as the tasks and powers of the German market surveillance authorities, now stem directly from European law. While the German Product Safety Act still exists, as a residual statute in future it will primarily contain technical legal requirements that are largely irrelevant for economic operators.