What Does a Marketplace Have to Do Under the GPSR, and What Stays With the Seller?
Article 22 attaches to the platform and Article 19 attaches to your offer. What the marketplace must be able to do, and what its terms cannot transfer.
Direct answer
They are two different articles and they attach to two different things. Article 22 places duties on the provider of the online marketplace. Article 19 places duties on the offer. A marketplace complying with Article 22 does not discharge your Article 19 obligations, and nothing in its terms can transfer them to it.
The cleanest way to hold the distinction: Article 22 is mostly about what the platform must be able to do, and Article 19 is about what your listing must say.
Jump around this page
Which article attaches to whom
| Article 19 | Article 22 | |
|---|---|---|
| Attaches to | The offer | The provider of the online marketplace |
| Who performs it | The economic operator offering the product | The platform |
| What it is about | What the listing indicates | Contact points, internal processes, cooperation, design |
| Can it be delegated | No. It attaches to the offer you make | Not yours to delegate |
Regulation (EU) 2023/988 is the source for both.
What Article 22 requires of the platform
Twelve paragraphs. Grouped by what they are for:
Being reachable. A single contact point for market surveillance authorities, and registration in the Safety Gate Portal. A separate contact point for consumers on product safety matters.
Having a process. Internal processes for product safety, so the platform can act on what it is told rather than deciding what to do each time.
Acting on orders. Where an authority orders the removal of content offering a dangerous product, or an explicit warning, the platform has to act within two working days. Orders can extend to identical content, subject to limits on the search required and on what automated tools can do.
Acting without being ordered. Using the Safety Gate Portal to detect dangerous products offered on the platform, and processing safety notices within three working days.
Designing for compliance. This is the one that matters most to a seller: the marketplace has to be designed so that traders can provide the manufacturer and product identification information and the safety warnings on the product listing, with internal processes that let a trader submit them.
Cooperating on the consequences. Notifying affected consumers directly about recalls, publishing recall information, cooperating on recalls, and reporting accidents through the Safety Business Gateway.
What that design duty does and does not mean for you
It means the fields have to be there. A platform that gives a seller nowhere to put the responsible person's details is not meeting Article 22(9).
It does not mean the content is the platform's problem. Article 19 requires the offer to clearly and visibly indicate the manufacturer's details, the responsible person where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, information identifying the product including a picture of it, and any warning or safety information. Filling those fields correctly is the obligation of whoever makes the offer.
So the useful reading of Article 22(9) is that it removes one excuse. "The marketplace has no field for it" stops being an answer, in either direction.
What a seller should actually check
- Does the platform expose a field for every Article 19 item, including the responsible person? If not, that is an Article 22(9) question to raise with it.
- Who is your responsible person, and is it indicated on the offer? That question is owned by who must be your EU responsible person.
- What does the platform's own safety process do when it receives a notice about your listing? You will find out faster by asking than by reading the terms.
- Are your company-level registrations in order? Those gate the listing before any of this applies, and they are about your company rather than your products. See the registrations that gate a listing.
What this page does not own
It does not list what the offer must show. That is what an EU online offer must show, which owns Article 19 in full.
It does not cover the Digital Services Act duties a marketplace may also carry. Article 22 is a product-safety article, and a platform's obligations under other instruments are a different question with different sources.
It does not tell you whether a particular platform complies. That is a question about one company, and this estate does not rank suppliers.
What would change this answer
Recheck if:
- Article 19 or Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988 is amended, particularly the two and
three working-day periods;
- the Commission issues guidance on what the Article 22(9) design duty requires in practice;
- the Safety Gate Portal or Safety Business Gateway changes what a platform has to register
or report.
Last verified 12 September 2026.
Keep exploring
The questions this page usually raises next.
- CompareNext questionWhat Product Information Must an EU Online Listing Show Under the GPSR?The manufacturer, responsible person, product identifiers and safety information an online offer to EU consumers must indicate.
- CompareNext questionWho Must Be Your EU Responsible Person Under the GPSR?A product can be placed on the EU market only if an operator established in the Union carries Article 16.
- CompareNext questionEPR Registration and Responsible PersonAlmost everything blocking a listing today is a fact about the business, not the garment.
Sources and legal basis
Does this reach your products?
Give ActivateDigital one product and it works out which obligations apply from the product's own character, and says which it cannot decide.