How Troubador Publishing is ensuring compliance with GPSR

The EU’s new General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) comes into effect on 13th December 2024. GPSR will replace the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD), dating from 2004, aiming to align rules with the significant expansion of digital commerce in the time since. The full GPSR regulation can be read here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R0988

From this point, book manufacturers who wish to sell into the EU (including Northern Ireland) have an obligation to ensure that their books are a ‘safe product’. A manufacturer is defined as the individual or entity that produces a product or has it designed or manufactured and markets it under their own name or trademark.

Therefore, it is the publisher of the work who is the manufacturer and has an obligation to ensure that their product is safe. However, this understandably is causing confusion in the self-publishing world, where an author – an individual as opposed to a company – is usually considered to be the publisher.

This article aims to alleviate some of the concerns of our current and prospective authors and set out what Troubador is doing to ensure its compliance with the regulations going forward. However, please note that we are not experts on this new regulation and if you are particularly concerned about your own compliance then we recommend that you seek independent advice. We are also not able to offer advice or guidance on what other publishers may be doing regarding this legislation; we can only advise on our compliance.

How does Troubador meet GPSR compliance requirements?

While we work with authors who use their own ISBN and publishing imprint, the majority of the authors Troubador works with opt to use a Troubador ISBN for the publication of their book.  For these books, Troubador is considered the manufacturer of the book and therefore is responsible for ensuring GPSR compliance in exporting these books into Europe.

From December 2024, Troubador Publishing Ltd (and The Book Guild Ltd) will be GPSR compliant. We have appointed an authorised representative in the EU (https://www.authorisedrepcompliance.co.uk/) to act on our behalf in the event of any communication with regulatory authorities. We have also sourced compliance certificates from our printers and completed risk assessments to ensure that our supply chain is safe and compliant.

It is a requirement that all books now have the manufacturer’s name and address on the copyright page of the book, which is the case for our books anyway but we will also be including the contact details of our authorised representative on the copyright page of all new books and reprints going forward. All books currently in contract with us have had the authorised representative’s details added to their metadata to feed out to the trade. This includes ebooks and audiobooks, as digital products are not detailed as an exemption to GPSR legislation.

How can authors publishing under their own ISBN ensure GPSR compliance?

Under the rules of the regulation, it is generally considered that a self-published author using their own publishing imprint and distributing to the EU will be considered the ‘manufacturer’ of the product.

Under these regulations, authors will be responsible for:

• Completing a risk assessment for products they are placing on the market.
• Obtaining safety/conformity certificates from their supply chain.
• Appointing an authorised representative in the EU if the publisher/author does not have an EU address.
• Providing a name and address (physical and electronic) for both the manufacturer (i.e. publisher) and the appointed EU representative to be included on the copyright page of the book and in the book's metadata.

Troubador is happy to offer advice and guidance to current and prospective authors who have used Troubador’s services to publish under their own ISBN, however for those that choose not to use a Troubador ISBN the final responsibility of ensuring compliance with GPSR will lie with the author. We’ll be discussing the route to compliance with our current authors using their own ISBNs in the coming weeks and will include this in our discussions with prospective authors about their route to publication.

If you are interested in learning more about GPSR compliance, we are indebted to CPI for their very helpful webinars and guidance on the legislation as well as our new authorised representatives at Authorised Rep Compliance (ARC).