GSPR Regulations Europe – What to Know
This year, the European Union has introduced the General Safety and Performance Requirements (GSPR). The purpose of this is to ensure that all consumer products sold on the European Union market meet the required safety, healthy and environmental standards.
Now what does this mean for board game publishers? While the different abbreviations and lengthy legislative texts can be intimidating at first, it really boils down to making sure that the games are safe, compliant and that everything is correctly documented. We understand and agree that navigating legislation is not what most people had in mind when they decided to start publishing board games, so we put together a quick guide to make it easy to understand. Here we will explain what GSPR means for your projects and how to make sure that everything is compliant.
We’ll go through what GSPR is, and what it means for board games. How we at Boda Games can help you navigate the compliance requirements, what you need to do as a publisher and lastly what companies out there can help you with it.
What is GSPR?
The General Safety and Performance Requirements (GSPR) are a set of rules designed to ensure that products placed on the EU market are safe to use and do not pose unnecessary risks to consumers.
The main takeaways for the GSPR are:
- It applies to all consumer products sold in the European Union, whether that is toys, board games or related products.
- It replaces older safety frameworks.
- It applies not just to the product, but also to the labelling, the packaging and the usage instructions.
- The core principle behind the GSPR is that all products must be safe, reliable and in accordance with their purpose.
The good thing is, everything Boda Games produces is completely in line with the GSPR requirements. The less good thing is that it requires more paperwork than before.
GSPR applied to Board Games
Make sure your labelling and warnings icons are there
You need a CE marking for the European Union, and a UKCA marking for the UK market. Age grading and warnings must be clear and visible. The small parts warning icon must be used if applicable. And both manufacturer details (e.g. Manufactured by Boda Games Manufacturing in Wenzhou, China) and importer details (e.g. imported by Board Game Paradise, 123 Board Game Road, Boardgame City, Germany) must be printed on the packaging.
Documentation
A declaration of conformity should be prepared for each product/SKU. This declaration confirms that the game meets all the European Union requirements. Test reports (EN-71, REACH) should be available if requested by authorities.
Materials & Safety
All the materials need to meet the EN-71 Toy Safety standards. This means they meet the mechanical and physical safety requirements such as choking hazards and sharp edges. It must also meet the chemical safety requirements, which means it must be compliant with REACH guidelines on substances like lead and other chemicals. Lastly, it must meet the flammability requirements.
Boda Games Supports Compliance
All Boda Games produced board games meet these requirements so there is nothing to worry about, but to officially document that it is necessary to submit the games to a testing laboratory to receive official test reports. We can advise you on the required tests based on the regions you are planning to sell. And we can arrange for the testing to be done at accredited testing laboratories, with test results available in 1-2 weeks. This helps save time and money, as we can get the game sent to the testing lab as soon as the first few copies are finished.
Are you a non-EU publisher without any legal establishment in the European Union? Then there are some additional steps you need to take in order to sell your product in the EU. Please check our follow up article here.
