{
  "type": "problem",
  "slug": "marketplace-account-suspended",
  "lang": "en",
  "url": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/marketplace-account-suspended/",
  "markdown": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/marketplace-account-suspended.md",
  "title": "Our seller account was suspended for non-compliant products",
  "description": "Why marketplaces suspend traders under the GPSR, and how to rebuild the evidence across the whole range before asking for reinstatement.",
  "answer": "The General Product Safety Regulation requires marketplaces to suspend, after a prior warning and for a reasonable period, traders that frequently offer non-compliant products. A suspension under that rule is about a pattern, not one listing. Reinstatement takes evidence across the range: complete offer information, a responsible person in the Union for each product, and the documentation behind it.",
  "theme": {
    "id": "marketplace-retailer",
    "label": "Marketplace and retailer demands"
  },
  "roles": [
    {
      "id": "online-seller",
      "label": "Online seller"
    }
  ],
  "regulations": [
    "GPSR"
  ],
  "path": [
    "product-validation",
    "documentation-generator"
  ],
  "trigger": "The marketplace suspends the account after earlier warnings or takedowns",
  "keep": null,
  "why": [
    {
      "text": "Article 22(11) of the General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 obliges providers of online marketplaces to suspend, for a reasonable period of time and after having issued a prior warning, their services to traders that frequently offer products which are non-compliant with the regulation. The marketplace is not choosing to be strict; it is applying a rule addressed to it.",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The same article shows what marketplaces look at. Marketplaces must use at least the Safety Gate Portal when they check offers (Article 22(7)), take into account information on dangerous products notified by the authorities (Article 22(6)), and build processes through which traders provide the mandatory information and a self-certification that they offer only compliant products (Article 22(10)).",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "What the trader has to prove is the ordinary duty of its role. Depending on the set-up it is a manufacturer, importer or distributor under the regulation, and a responsible person in the Union has to exist for each product (Article 16(1); Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Article 4).",
      "sources": [
        2
      ]
    }
  ],
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "List every earlier warning and takedown",
      "text": "The suspension follows a prior warning. Collect the messages and sort them: missing information, or products described as dangerous."
    },
    {
      "name": "Check the whole range, not only the flagged offers",
      "text": "Go through each product against the requirements that apply to it, and record what is met and what is missing.",
      "item": "product-validation"
    },
    {
      "name": "Close the documentation gaps",
      "text": "Technical documentation, and the declaration of conformity where a sector act requires one, for the products you place on the market yourself.",
      "item": "documentation-generator"
    },
    {
      "name": "Remove what you cannot document",
      "text": "A product without a manufacturer you can name, a responsible person in the Union or any evidence of safety should not go back online."
    },
    {
      "name": "Answer the marketplace with a plan and the evidence",
      "text": "Show what was wrong, what was corrected for every product, and how new products are checked before listing."
    }
  ],
  "documents": [
    {
      "name": "Complete offer information per product",
      "from": "You, in the seller interface",
      "ground": "GPSR Articles 19 and 22(9)"
    },
    {
      "name": "The self-certification the marketplace asks for",
      "from": "You, committing to offer only compliant products",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 22(10)(b)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Technical documentation",
      "from": "The manufacturer",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 9(2)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Name and addresses of the responsible person",
      "from": "The operator established in the Union",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 16(1)"
    }
  ],
  "risks": [
    {
      "title": "The suspension is a legal duty of the marketplace",
      "text": "Marketplaces shall suspend, for a reasonable period of time and after having issued a prior warning, the provision of their services to traders that frequently offer non-compliant products (GPSR Article 22(11)).",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "Authorities see the same offers",
      "text": "Marketplaces cooperate with market surveillance authorities to eliminate or mitigate the risks of products offered through them (GPSR Article 22(12)).",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "Penalties under national law",
      "text": "Each Member State sets its own penalties for infringements of the regulation (GPSR Article 44).",
      "source": 1
    }
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "How long does a suspension last?",
      "a": "The regulation says a reasonable period of time. The marketplace sets the period and the conditions for coming back in its own terms."
    },
    {
      "q": "What is the self-certification?",
      "a": "Marketplaces must give traders a way to commit to offering only products that comply with the regulation, together with the mandatory offer information."
    },
    {
      "q": "Does moving to another marketplace solve it?",
      "a": "No. Every marketplace has the same duties, and they must use at least the Safety Gate Portal when they check offers."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/988/oj",
      "accessed": "2026-09-21"
    },
    {
      "title": "Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and compliance of products",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/1020/oj",
      "accessed": "2026-09-21"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "marketplace-listing-removed",
    "retailer-proof",
    "marketplace-operator-duties",
    "distributor-duties"
  ],
  "reviewer": "Conphora compliance team",
  "reviewedAt": "2026-09-28",
  "notice": "General information, not legal advice."
}