Retail & Consumer Goods

Ensure product safety compliance for retailers

As a retailer, you must sell only safe products, even if you did not make them. Vet suppliers and get their test certificates, check conformity marking and labelling, keep traceability records, and if a product proves unsafe, stop selling it, report it and tell customers.

EnglandScotlandWales

Check that your product safety arrangements meet current legal requirements. Retailers are responsible for ensuring products they sell are safe, even if they did not manufacture them. The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) enforces product safety law and can seize unsafe products, issue fines of up to £20,000 under the GPSR 2005, and prosecute retailers (some sector-specific product regulations carry unlimited fines).

Supplier vetting

Safety marking and documentation

Product recall procedures

Record keeping and traceability

Preparing for the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025

The PRMA 2025 is an enabling Act that will update the UK product safety framework through secondary legislation. While detailed regulations are pending, retailers should prepare for new obligations, particularly around online marketplace duties and supply chain traceability.

PRMA 2025 preparation

Official guidance