GPSR for Private Label Sellers Sourcing From China
Have a factory in Shenzhen make a generic product, put your own brand on it, and EU law stops calling you a seller. It calls you the manufacturer.
Last reviewed 8 September 2026. Written by the Ariadne team from the regulation text and marketplace documentation. Not legal advice.
Two sourcing patterns, two different questions
Amazon private label sellers who source from China generally do one of two things: put their own brand name on a factory's generic product, or resell a product that still carries the factory's own brand. GPSR treats these two patterns differently, and the difference decides whose name has to appear on the disclosure.
If you put your own brand on it, you are the manufacturer
Article 13 of the regulation, the provision that actually governs private labelling, is direct about this.
A natural or legal person shall be deemed to be a manufacturer for the purposes of this Regulation and shall be subject to the obligations of the manufacturer set out in Article 9 where that natural or legal person places a product on the market under the natural or legal person's name or trademark.
This restates the underlying definition the regulation uses throughout.
'manufacturer' means any natural or legal person who manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured, and markets that product under that person's name or trademark.
For a private label seller this is unambiguous. The factory that molded, sewed or assembled the product is not who GPSR calls the manufacturer. Whoever's name or trademark is on the product, and who places it on the market, is. That means the full list of manufacturer duties in Article 9 lands on you, not on your supplier, regardless of who physically made the item.
What that actually requires
- An internal risk analysis and technical documentation covering the product's essential safety characteristics, kept for 10 years after the product is placed on the market (Article 9(2), 9(3)).
- A type, batch or serial number, or another element that lets the product be identified, visible on the product itself unless its size or nature makes that impossible (Article 9(5)).
- Your name, registered trade name or trademark, and your postal and electronic address, on the product or its packaging (Article 9(6)).
- Instructions and safety information in a language the buyer's Member State can easily understand, unless the product can be used safely without them (Article 9(7)).
- A public complaints channel, such as a phone number, email address or a section of your website (Article 9(11)).
- A duty to act if you have reason to believe your product is dangerous, including recalling it (Article 9(8)).
If you resell under the factory's own brand, the factory is still the manufacturer, and it's still outside the EU
The other common pattern looks different on paper. Suppose Shenzhen Lumei Houseware Co., Ltd. makes and sells its own insulated steel bottles under its own trade name, Lumei. A seller who lists those bottles without rebranding them is not the manufacturer under Article 13(1). Lumei is, because Lumei is the one that markets the product under its own name. But Lumei has no office, no legal presence and no representative inside the EU, which is exactly the situation Article 16 exists for.
Either way, someone needs an Article 16 Responsible Person
A product covered by this Regulation shall not be placed on the market unless there is an economic operator established in the Union who is responsible for the tasks set out in Article 4(3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 in respect to that product.
The role can be filled by an EU-established manufacturer, an EU-established importer (only relevant where the manufacturer itself isn't EU-established), an authorised representative with a written mandate from the manufacturer, or, only as a last resort, an EU-established fulfilment service provider. In the Lumei example, the manufacturer of record has no EU establishment, so someone else has to take the role. Ariadne's own sample data shows one shape of the answer: Lumei listed as the non-EU manufacturer, with a separate EU-established firm, Northgate Compliance B.V., named as Responsible Person. It does not have to be a paid third party. If you import the bottles into the EU yourself through an EU-established entity, that entity can be the importer, and therefore the Responsible Person, without hiring anyone.
What has to appear on the listing
| Disclosure | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer identity | Name, registered trade name or trademark, and postal and electronic address of whoever is legally the manufacturer under Article 13(1) or Article 3(8). |
| EU Responsible Person | Required only when that manufacturer is not established in the EU. Name, postal and electronic address. |
| Product identification | Type, model or other identifier, including a picture of the product itself. |
| Warnings | Any safety or warning information, in a language the buyer's Member State can easily understand. |
A worked example: the insulated bottle
Take a real product shape: an insulated stainless steel bottle, SKU LM-BTL-750-SLV, made by Shenzhen Lumei Houseware Co., Ltd. and sold under the Lumei brand. Because Lumei markets the bottle under its own trade name, Lumei is the Article 13(1) manufacturer, not the Amazon seller who lists it. Lumei's obligations under Article 9 attach to that specific SKU: a batch number (here, B2607-14) visible on the product, a traceability identifier the technical documentation refers back to (LM750-2026), and warnings in the buyer's language covering the real hazards, a child-safety age limit and a no-microwave warning, not a generic disclaimer. None of that changes because the item is listed on three marketplaces instead of one. What changes per marketplace is only where the Article 19 block gets pasted.
Common mistakes sourcing agencies don't warn you about
- Assuming a factory's own quality certificate or business license stands in for the Article 9(2) technical documentation. It doesn't. The technical documentation is a risk analysis of that specific product, not a general business credential.
- Assuming that because Amazon's own manufacturer-contact field got filled in, the underlying Article 9 obligations are satisfied. Amazon's field captures the disclosure. It does not perform the risk analysis, keep the 10-year documentation, or run the complaints channel for you.
- Using a different manufacturer name on the product packaging than the one submitted in the marketplace's compliance field. Article 9(6) requires the name on the product to match; a mismatch is the kind of detail a market surveillance authority checks first.
- Treating the Responsible Person as optional because "the factory already has an EU distributor somewhere." Article 16 requires the Responsible Person to be named for that product, on that listing. An unrelated EU distributor relationship elsewhere in the factory's business does not satisfy it.
Putting it together
- 1
Work out who is legally the manufacturer
If you put your own brand on the product, that's you. If you resell it unchanged under the factory's own brand, that's the factory.
- 2
Check whether that party is EU-established
A Chinese factory almost never is. Neither is a US or UK-based private label seller with no EU entity.
- 3
Name an EU Responsible Person if it isn't
The manufacturer itself, an EU importer, an authorised representative with a written mandate, or, only as a last resort, an EU-established fulfilment provider.
- 4
Fill in the Article 19 disclosure
Manufacturer identity, the Responsible Person if one is needed, product identification with a picture, and warnings in the buyer's language. The Article 19 disclosure generator builds this block from the same fields described above.
Frequently asked
I put my own brand on a product a Chinese factory made. Am I the manufacturer or is the factory?
You are, under Article 13(1). Whoever places a product on the market under their own name or trademark is deemed the manufacturer, regardless of who physically made it. See GPSR Article 19 explained for what that means for the listing itself.
Can I be my own EU Responsible Person?
Only if you or your business has a genuine EU establishment that qualifies as the manufacturer, an importer, or an authorised representative with a written mandate. See GPSR Responsible Person.
Does it matter if I don't rebrand the product at all?
Yes. If you resell it under the factory's own name unchanged, the factory stays the legal manufacturer, but it is still outside the EU and still needs a Responsible Person. That job just does not automatically fall to you.
Does it matter that the product physically ships from China?
Not for who counts as the manufacturer. It matters for who counts as the importer, since that role is defined as whoever established in the EU places a product from a third country on the EU market.
Sources
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