While the long-awaited GPSR guidelines have finally appeared, offering disappointingly little clarity, the next regulation is already lining up for everyone involved in selling products in the EU: the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). The PPWR entered into force on 11 February 2025 and will start to apply from 12 August 2026, with many design and documentation obligations ramping up further between 2026 and 2030. Just as companies are still implementing the GPSR, the PPWR is already demanding attention.

As the dust settles after December 13, 2024 - of course you all know by now that's the date when the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) came into effect - numerous ambiguities remain. Flaws, gaps, and even loopholes are crying out for more clarity. At the time of writing this blog, we are still awaiting the European Commission's guidance document, which is expected to provide some of this much-needed clarity.

Once upon a time, back when I was just a young lad, there was a song my brothers and I occasionally heard on the radio - a song that seemed to cast a spell over us. We didn't know what it was about, nor could we name the band, but something about it was almost magical. And this was before we'd even seen the music video! That song became iconic - a symbol of our youth - resonating with us deeply despite remaining a mystery for years.

I'm writing this blog while sitting on a train to Amsterdam. Once I arrive and walk to my destination, I'll need to watch out for a fairly recent phenomenon: fatbikes. I live in a quiet little village, so I thought it wasn't that big of a deal. But whenever I come to Amsterdam, I suddenly understand the alarming Dutch news headlines much better. These things can be dangerous!

As I wrote in one of my earlier blogs, the upcoming General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) is food for many more blogs to come. It contains many provisions that go far beyond the current EU General Product Safety Directive (GPSD). In this blog, I would like to draw attention to a new obligation that is introduced in the GPSR: accident reporting.

Interesting news from Recall Land. The safety of Apple's iPhone 12 has come under scrutiny, as per findings from French regulatory authorities. Their testing revealed that this particular smartphone model did not comply with the legal limits set for radiation emissions. This news is notable not only for the reported safety issue, but perhaps even more so for the safety issues that went unreported.