Pravano · Knowledge base · Product safety / GPSR

GPSR penalties (Article 44): what an online shop risks in the Czech Republic

Methodology: Marek Galetka, founder of Pravano. English translation of our Czech article, which a person approved before publication; every number, date and legal reference of the translation is checked automatically against the original.

Cross-checked as of 5 October 2026 · based on primary sources

Updated 5 October 2026. Based on Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (GPSR) and Czech Act No. 387/2024 Coll.. An informative readiness check, not a legal service or an official audit. Original: česká verze.

This article is intended for owners of online shops and small companies selling non-food consumer products. It answers three questions most of you will search for: How much could I be fined? Who will inspect me? And what should I do before an inspection comes? This is not scaremongering – it is an accurate picture of what the law says with certainty, what national or implementing rules will still specify, and how to prepare for an inspection.

General information, not individual legal advice. Always verify the situation of a specific company with a legal adviser, or use the free quick check.

What Article 44 of the GPSR is and why you need to know it

Article 44 of the GPSR does not set any specific amount of fines – it leaves the obligation to lay down penalties entirely to the member states. Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (GPSR) requires every EU state to introduce penalties that are:

• effective – they actually deter infringements,
• proportionate – they correspond to the seriousness of the specific infringement,
• dissuasive – they have a preventive effect for the future.

The specific amounts of fines, their types and the procedural rules are a matter of national law – in the Czech Republic they are laid down by Act No. 387/2024 Coll., on general product safety (in effect from 13 December 2024); check its current wording in the Collection of Laws. For your online shop this means one thing only: what is decisive is Czech legislation and the practice of the Czech Trade Inspection Authority, not the text of the regulation itself.

The GPSR was adopted on 10 May 2023, published in the Official Journal of the EU on 23 May 2023 and entered into force on 12 June 2023 (on the twentieth day after publication under Article 52, first subparagraph). Its application was deferred to 13 December 2024, when it also replaced the original Directive 2001/95/EC on general product safety. As an EU regulation, the GPSR is directly applicable in all member states without the need for national transposition – the obligations under it apply directly from the date of application.

What applies with certainty from 13 December 2024

These obligations have been binding since the date of application of the GPSR. Breaching them gives rise to liability for which penalties may be imposed under national law.

General safety requirement (Article 5)

Economic operators may place or make available on the market only safe products. This is the basic rule from which all the other obligations follow. The GPSR applies to non-food consumer products unless there are specific EU rules with the same objective for them (Article 2). Nine groups are excluded under Article 2(2) – among others medicinal products, food, feed, live plants and animals, animal by-products, plant protection products and antiques; the list is exhaustive.

Obligations of the manufacturer (Article 9)

The manufacturer must:

• carry out an internal risk analysis and draw up technical documentation,
• keep that documentation up to date and available to the market surveillance authorities for ten years after the product has been placed on the market (Article 9(3)),
• indicate on the product the type, batch or serial number and its name, postal address and e-mail address.

Example: You sell children's high chairs made in Asia under your own brand and import them into the Czech Republic. As an importer that places a product on the EU market under its own name or trademark, you take over the manufacturer's obligations under Article 9 (Article 13(1)) – including the technical documentation and the risk analysis. This would not apply to toys: Articles 9 to 18 of the GPSR do not apply to products covered by harmonisation legislation (Article 2(1), third subparagraph), and the manufacturer's obligations, including conformity assessment, the EU declaration of conformity and the CE marking, are laid down by Directive 2009/48/EC on the safety of toys. Having an invoice from the supplier is not enough; you need documentation demonstrating the safety of the product.

Obligations of the importer and the distributor (Articles 11 and 12)

Before placing a product on the market, the importer must ensure that the product complies with the general safety requirement and that the manufacturer has complied with its obligations under Article 9(2), (5) and (6) (Article 11(1)), and must indicate its name and contact details on the product – and only where that is not possible, on the packaging or in an accompanying document (Article 11(3)). Before making a product available on the market, the distributor must verify that the manufacturer has complied with Article 9(5), (6) and (7) and any importer with Article 11(3) and (4) (Article 12(1)). For products covered by harmonisation legislation, Articles 11 and 12 do not apply – the obligations follow from the relevant harmonisation legislation.

No link in the supply chain can rely on someone else bearing responsibility. The GPSR deliberately sets the responsibility of each link separately.

Responsible person in the EU (Article 16)

A product may be placed on the EU market only if there is an economic operator established in the EU responsible for it. Under Article 4(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, to which Article 16(1) refers, this is a manufacturer established in the Union; an importer, where the manufacturer is not established in the Union; an authorised representative with a written mandate from the manufacturer; and a fulfilment service provider only where none of the previous three is established in the Union. Article 16 does not apply to products subject to Union harmonisation legislation (Article 2(1), third subparagraph). The operator's name and contact details must be indicated on the product, its packaging, the parcel or an accompanying document (Article 16(3)).

Example: You buy goods directly from a Chinese manufacturer and sell them in your online shop. If the manufacturer has no representative in the EU and you are the importer, you are the responsible person – and you must state this on the product or its packaging. If you ignore this obligation, you expose yourself to a penalty regardless of whether the product itself is safe.

Obligations of an online shop in distance sales (Article 19)

For online shops, Article 19 is the most practical obligation. Every offer must indicate clearly and visibly:

• the name, registered trade name or registered trademark of the manufacturer and its postal and electronic address – always (point (a)); and in addition, where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, the name and postal and electronic address of the responsible person (point (b)). Points (a) and (b) are cumulative, not alternatives.
• information allowing the identification of the product, including a picture of it and its type,
• any warning or safety information in a language determined by the member state in which the product is made available on the market.

This obligation concerns every product page. Having the information in the website footer or in the terms and conditions is not enough – Article 19 requires it to be visible directly in the offer.

Notification of a dangerous product (Article 9(8), Article 11(8), Article 12(4))

If an economic operator considers – or has reason to believe – that a product it has made available is dangerous, it must act immediately (Article 9(8) for manufacturers, Article 11(8) for importers, Article 12(4) for distributors – the regulation sets no deadline in days): take corrective measures, inform consumers under Article 35 or 36 and notify the market surveillance authorities through the Safety Business Gateway portal. The portal is established by Article 27 and is a separate portal – not a business section of the Safety Gate rapid alert system (Article 25) or of the public Safety Gate portal (Article 34).

Product recall

In a product recall, the economic operator must directly inform all affected consumers who can be identified, use a recall notice containing the elements under Article 36(2) and offer the consumer a choice of at least two of the three remedies – repair, replacement or an adequate refund of the value of the product, amounting to at least the price paid (Article 37(2)). The remedy must be free of charge for the consumer and must not cause the consumer significant inconvenience (Article 37(1) and (5)).

What delegated acts will still specify

One area remains open and cannot yet be planned for specifically. For products that may present a serious risk to health and safety, the Commission may introduce a traceability system (Article 18). The specific scope and conditions – i.e. which products will have to be traced and how – will only be laid down by delegated acts of the Commission. As at 30 September 2026, no such act had been adopted, so no obligation follows from Article 18 yet; until the acts are published, it is impossible to say whether and how they will affect you.

Recommendation: follow developments, but do not take premature steps on the basis of speculation. Once the delegated acts are published, there will be time to respond specifically.

Who carries out inspections in the Czech Republic and how supervision works

The main supervisory authority for the general safety of non-food consumer products in the Czech Republic is the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (ČOI), unless another state administration authority is competent for the type of product concerned. The ČOI carries out inspections both in brick-and-mortar shops and at online shops – including mystery purchases and checks of product pages.

When inspecting an online shop, the ČOI typically verifies:

• whether every product page states the mandatory information under Article 19,
• whether the product bears the marking under Article 9 (type, batch, manufacturer's contact details),
• whether there is a responsible person in the EU under Article 16,
• whether the company has a procedure in place for the case that a dangerous product is discovered.

Providers of online marketplaces also have specific obligations under Article 22: registration on the Safety Gate portal, designation of a single point of contact and the obligation, upon an order of a market surveillance authority, to remove content offering a dangerous product, disable access to it or display an explicit warning – without undue delay and in any event within two working days of receiving the order (Article 22(4)).

How high the penalties really are and how to assess them

The exact amount of fines for breaching the GPSR is set not by the regulation but by Czech national law. Article 44 only provides that penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. The upper limits of fines are laid down by Act No. 387/2024 Coll. (Sections 9 to 15): for example, up to CZK 5,000,000 for failing to state the information under Article 19 in the offer (Section 9(2) and (3)), up to CZK 50,000,000 for a manufacturer or importer placing a dangerous product on the market (Section 11(1)(a) and Section 12(1)(a)) and up to CZK 20,000,000 for breaching the distributor's obligations (Section 13).

What influences the amount of the penalty in practice:

• Seriousness of the infringement: a missing contact detail on a product page is a formal shortcoming, for which, however, Act No. 387/2024 Coll. allows a fine of up to CZK 5,000,000 (Section 9(2) and (3)); placing on the market, without a risk analysis, a product that causes harm to a consumer is a serious infringement.
• Extent of the danger: how many consumers were or could have been endangered.
• Voluntary remedy: a company that corrects the shortcoming before or during the inspection is as a rule assessed more leniently.
• Repetition: a repeated or intentional infringement will be assessed more strictly than a one-off shortcoming.

Penalties can take various forms: a fine, an order to take corrective action, a ban on placing the product on the market or an order to recall it. Corrective measures are imposed by the supervisory authority under Act No. 87/2023 Coll., on market surveillance of products, which since 13 December 2024 has also applied to supervision under the GPSR – and failing to comply with an imposed measure is an offence punishable by a fine of up to CZK 50,000,000 (Section 11(1)(a) and (6)(d) of that act).

Decision guide by seriousness

If you are an online shop selling products of other manufacturers and the contact details are missing on your product pages – this is a breach of Article 19, for which a fine of up to CZK 5,000,000 applies (Section 9(2) and (3) of Act No. 387/2024 Coll.). The risk of a penalty is real, and the remedy is quick and cheap: add the details to every page.

If you place a product on the market under your own brand without a risk analysis and technical documentation (Article 9) and the product causes harm to a consumer – this is a serious infringement with a significantly higher risk of penalties and potential civil liability. Merely failing to carry out a risk analysis or to draw up technical documentation is itself an offence of the manufacturer punishable by a fine of up to CZK 20,000,000 (Section 11 of Act No. 387/2024 Coll.).

If, as an importer or distributor, you knowingly ignore signals that a product is dangerous and do not notify them through the Safety Business Gateway (Article 11(8) or Article 12(4) respectively) – you expose yourself to a high risk of penalties: both the importer and the distributor face a fine of up to CZK 10,000,000 for this (Section 12(1)(m) and Section 13(1)(e), point 3 of Act No. 387/2024 Coll. respectively), and an importer that has placed a dangerous product on the market up to CZK 50,000,000 (Section 12(1)(a)).

30/60/90-day action plan

This plan systematically reduces the risk of penalties – from the quickest fixes to deeper process changes.

Within 30 days – visible and immediately fixable

1. Go through every product page of your online shop and verify that it contains the name, postal address and e-mail of the manufacturer – and, for manufacturers outside the EU, also of the responsible person (Article 19). Add any missing details directly to the product page template, not to the footer.
2. Check the physical products or their packaging: they must bear the type, batch or serial number and the manufacturer's contact details (Article 9). If the marking is missing, contact the supplier with a request to add it, or arrange a sticker with the details.
3. For each product in your portfolio, verify that there is a responsible person established in the EU (Article 16). If not, treat it as a priority – without a responsible person the product may not be on the EU market.

Within 60 days – process readiness

1. Set up a written internal procedure for the case that a dangerous product is discovered: who reports, through which channel (Safety Business Gateway) and with what urgency (immediately – Article 9(8), Article 11(8), Article 12(4); there is no deadline in days). Everyone who handles warranty claims or complaints must know the procedure.
2. Collect, or request from your suppliers, the technical documentation and risk analyses for products for which you are the manufacturer or importer (Article 9, Article 11). Store the documentation so that it is available during an inspection.
3. Prepare a template recall notice, including the procedure for contacting consumers and offering a free remedy (repair, replacement, refund).

Within 90 days – system level

1. Carry out an internal review of your entire product portfolio from the GPSR point of view – especially for products imported from outside the EU, where the risk of a missing responsible person or documentation is highest.
2. Settle responsibility with your suppliers by contract: who is the responsible person in the EU, who keeps the technical documentation, who reports incidents and who bears the costs of a recall.
3. Use the free quick check for an indicative assessment of your company's compliance with the GPSR.

Common misconceptions

Misconception 1: “The GPSR does not concern me as a distributor – the manufacturer is responsible for safety.”
Wrong. Under Article 12, the distributor has its own obligation to verify that the product bears the required marking and information. If it does not verify this and the product is dangerous, it bears part of the responsibility. The chain of responsibility in the GPSR is deliberately set up so that each link has its role – and its penalty.

Misconception 2: “The fines are fixed in the GPSR, so I know what I am risking.”
Wrong. Article 44 of the GPSR does not set any specific amounts. The amount of penalties is determined exclusively by the national law of each member state. In the Czech Republic it is Act No. 387/2024 Coll. (Sections 9 to 15) – not the text of the regulation. Anyone looking for a specific figure in the text of the GPSR will not find one.

Misconception 3: “It is enough to have the contact details in the terms and conditions – that meets Article 19.”
Wrong. Article 19 requires the information to be stated clearly and visibly directly in the offer – i.e. on the product page. A link to the terms and conditions or the website footer does not meet this condition. When inspecting a product page, the ČOI does not look to the terms and conditions as a substitute for the mandatory information in the offer.

Summary

The GPSR itself does not set any specific fine. Article 44 only requires member states to introduce effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties – their amount and type are determined by Czech national law. The main supervisory authority in the Czech Republic is the Czech Trade Inspection Authority.

Your risk of penalties is lowest when:

• every product page has the correct contact and identification details (Article 19),
• the products are physically marked under Article 9,
• for every product covered by Article 16 there is a responsible person established in the EU (for products under the legislation listed in Article 4(5) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, a similar obligation follows from Article 4 of that regulation),
• you know how and where to notify a dangerous product immediately through the Safety Business Gateway (Article 9(8), Article 11(8), Article 12(4); the portal under Article 27).

These obligations have applied with certainty since 13 December 2024. Traceability under Article 18 will only be specified by delegated acts of the Commission – here, wait for the specific text before you start investing in systems.

For a quick indicative assessment of where your company stands, use the free quick check.

This article is a general explanation, not individual legal advice. A specific overview for your company (Pravano Kompas) comes with the free check – in writing, within 2 working days.