Selling into the EU
A practical compliance checklist for product brands
You've got your eye on a new EU market. Perhaps a retailer has been in touch, or customers are asking whether you deliver there.
Exciting stuff.
Then comes the less glamorous question: what needs sorting before you start selling?
Let's make a start. I've put together ten checks to work through with your team, covering everything from packaging and environmental claims to who is responsible for what.
If the answers currently live in six spreadsheets and somebody's inbox, this is a good time to bring them together.
This guide is for brands selling non-food consumer products, directly or through retail partners. We're focusing on the EU.
Other European markets need their own checks, and the rules depend on what you sell, where it goes and how it gets there.
Download the free checklist, grab the people who look after your products, operations, marketing and finance, and work through it together.
You'll have space to choose your next three actions and agree who will do what.
1 Start with what you sell
Choose one product range and one EU country for your first pass.
Where will the stock sit? Will customers buy from your website, a marketplace or a retail partner?
Write down the route, then use it to check the relevant product and import rules. You can build out the other countries and ranges from there.
2 Find the rules that fit
A T-shirt, a moisturiser and a table lamp need different checks. Find the safety, chemicals and labelling requirements for what you actually sell.
You may also need tests and conformity documents, which show how the product meets the rules.
CE marking is required only where the relevant law says so. Ask a product specialist to help with anything you can't verify.
3 Know who is doing what
Products covered by the General Product Safety Regulation need a responsible economic operator established in the EU.
In plain English, that's an EU-based person or business with specific product safety duties.
Confirm who holds that role and agree the work in writing. Look at customs and packaging responsibilities separately. 'I thought they were doing it' is a conversation worth having before launch.
4 Get the paperwork out of hiding
Gather the specifications, supplier information, safety assessments, test results and declarations your product needs.
Make sure they cover the version you're selling. Then review the labels, warnings, product or batch identifiers and languages required in each country.
Keep the approved documents somewhere the team can find them. If there are three files called 'final', settle that one too.
5 Give your packaging some attention
List every packaging component, with its material and weight. Extended producer responsibility, or EPR, makes producers responsible for aspects of packaging waste management, including funding.
Find out whether you're the producer in each destination and what registrations, reporting, fees or representatives are required.
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation began applying in phases on 12 August 2026. Some requirements have later dates, and a UK registration doesn't cover EU obligations.
6 Make sure your claims hold up
Put your environmental claims next to the evidence behind them. Empowering Consumers rules began applying on 27 September 2026.
Broad claims such as 'eco-friendly' face a specific legal test, so having some supporting data won't automatically make them acceptable.
Review your sustainability labels and product climate claims based on offsets too. Keep the exact wording, evidence and approval together, and check how each country has implemented the rules.
7 Try shopping on your own website
Follow the journey from product page to checkout. Can customers find the required product safety information, prices, delivery details, returns and guarantees?
Customers buying goods online generally have 14 days from delivery to change their mind, with exceptions.
Include the new EU legal guarantee notice and check whether GARAN, the label for qualifying longer durability guarantees, applies. Give customers the information they need before they pay.
Add privacy, website accessibility and any extra rules for your product category to your list for a separate review. There's more to check than we can cover in this short guide.
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