{
  "type": "problem",
  "slug": "private-label-retailer",
  "lang": "en",
  "url": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/private-label-retailer/",
  "markdown": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/private-label-retailer.md",
  "title": "A retailer wants to sell our product under its own brand",
  "description": "When a retailer puts its own brand on your product, the law treats it as the manufacturer. What changes for you as the maker and what to agree in writing.",
  "answer": "Once the retailer places the product on the market under its own name or trademark, the law treats the retailer as the manufacturer (GPSR Article 13(1); Low Voltage Directive Article 10). It needs the technical documentation, a declaration of conformity in its name and its details on the product. Agree in writing which documents you hand over, who controls changes and complaints, and what happens in a recall.",
  "theme": {
    "id": "marketplace-retailer",
    "label": "Marketplace and retailer demands"
  },
  "roles": [
    {
      "id": "manufacturer",
      "label": "Manufacturer"
    },
    {
      "id": "distributor",
      "label": "Distributor"
    }
  ],
  "regulations": [
    "GPSR",
    "LVD"
  ],
  "path": [
    "regulation-library",
    "knowledge-articles"
  ],
  "trigger": "A retailer asks you to supply an existing product with the retailer's brand on the product and the packaging",
  "keep": "The retailer as manufacturer keeps the technical documentation for 10 years after the product has been placed on the market (GPSR Article 9(3); Low Voltage Directive Article 6(3), also for the declaration of conformity).",
  "why": [
    {
      "text": "In EU product law the manufacturer is defined by the name on the product. The General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 defines the manufacturer as any person who manufactures a product or has it designed or manufactured, and markets it under that person's name or trademark (Article 3(8)), and deems any person that places a product on the market under its own name or trademark to be a manufacturer with the obligations of Article 9 (Article 13(1)). For products under a CE act, that part of the GPSR does not apply (Article 2(1), third subparagraph, point (b)) and the sector act says the same: under the Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU, an importer or distributor that places electrical equipment on the market under its name or trade mark is considered a manufacturer and is subject to the manufacturer's obligations (Article 10).",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "The Commission's Blue Guide spells out what that means for a private-label arrangement. The operator that places the product on the market under its name or trademark automatically becomes the manufacturer and takes the entire responsibility for the conformity assessment, design and production, even if somebody else has actually done it. It must be in possession of all documentation and certificates necessary to demonstrate conformity, but these do not need to be under its name; it must be clear that they demonstrate compliance of the specific product (section 3.1). The Blue Guide adds that a manufacturer that subcontracts must retain overall control of the product and may in no circumstances discharge itself from its responsibilities.",
      "sources": [
        3
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "For you as the maker, three things change. The retailer needs your file: without the technical documentation and test evidence it cannot draw up a declaration or answer an authority. The retailer needs to know about changes, because the manufacturer must have procedures so that series production remains in conformity and must take changes in design or characteristics into account (GPSR Article 9(4); Low Voltage Directive Article 6(4)). And you remain traceable: on request, an economic operator identifies who supplied it with the product (GPSR Article 15(3)(a); Low Voltage Directive Article 11).",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Liability for damage is a separate layer. Under the Product Liability Directive (EU) 2024/2853, which applies to products placed on the market or put into service from 9 December 2026 (Article 2(1), as corrected in 2026), a manufacturer is both the person who develops, manufactures or produces a product and the person who presents itself as manufacturer by putting its name or trademark on it (Article 4, point 10). Both can be liable, jointly and severally (Articles 8(1) and 12(1)), and that liability cannot be excluded towards the injured person by contract (Article 15). The same logic reaches the packaging: under Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the company under whose name or trademark a packaged product is made is the packaging manufacturer (Article 3(1), point 13).",
      "sources": [
        4,
        5
      ]
    }
  ],
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Establish whose name the product will carry",
      "text": "Ask for the planned artwork of the product, the packaging and the instructions. If the retailer places the product on the market under its own name or trademark, the retailer is the manufacturer in law for that version. Treat the private-label version as a product of its own, with its own identifier, from the first order.",
      "item": "regulation-library"
    },
    {
      "name": "Agree the document package",
      "text": "List what the retailer receives: the technical documentation or the parts it needs, test reports, the risk analysis, drawings, the bill of materials. The documents need not be reissued in the retailer's name, but they must clearly demonstrate the specific product it sells. Agree how confidential parts are protected."
    },
    {
      "name": "Move the declaration and the label to the retailer",
      "text": "For a CE product, the retailer draws up the EU declaration of conformity in its own name and affixes the CE marking as manufacturer. Its name, registered trade name or trade mark and its address go on the product, with a type, batch or serial number that lets both of you trace a unit."
    },
    {
      "name": "Fix change control in the contract",
      "text": "Agree that no component, material, supplier or production site changes without written notice and the retailer's approval, and that you supply updated test evidence when it does. The retailer must keep series production in conformity and cannot do so blind."
    },
    {
      "name": "Agree who does what when something goes wrong",
      "text": "Decide who receives consumer complaints, who investigates, who keeps the register, who notifies an accident or a dangerous product, and who pays for a withdrawal or recall. Towards authorities and consumers the duties are the retailer's; your part is set by agreement."
    }
  ],
  "documents": [
    {
      "name": "Technical documentation, including test reports that identify the private-label product",
      "from": "You as the maker, handed to the retailer",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 9(2); Low Voltage Directive Article 6(2); Blue Guide section 3.1"
    },
    {
      "name": "EU declaration of conformity in the retailer's name, for CE products",
      "from": "The retailer as manufacturer",
      "ground": "Low Voltage Directive Articles 6(2) and 10"
    },
    {
      "name": "Label artwork with the retailer's name and address and the product identifier",
      "from": "The retailer, printed by you",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 9(5) and (6); Low Voltage Directive Article 6(5) and (6)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Supply agreement with change notification, complaint handling and recall terms",
      "from": "Both parties",
      "ground": "Set by agreement; supports GPSR Article 9(4) and Low Voltage Directive Article 6(4)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Records of what you supplied to the retailer and who supplied you",
      "from": "Your sales and purchase systems",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 15(3); Low Voltage Directive Article 11"
    }
  ],
  "risks": [
    {
      "title": "The retailer carries the manufacturer's duties",
      "text": "A person that places a product on the market under its own name or trademark is deemed to be a manufacturer and is subject to the manufacturer's obligations (GPSR Article 13(1)). A retailer that does not know this sells a product nobody has declared.",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "You stay liable for a defect",
      "text": "For products placed on the market or put into service from 9 December 2026, the Product Liability Directive (EU) 2024/2853 treats both the person who manufactures a product and the person who presents itself as manufacturer by putting its name or trademark on it as manufacturers (Article 4, point 10), and operators liable for the same damage can be held liable jointly and severally (Article 12(1)).",
      "source": 4
    },
    {
      "title": "The packaging role moves too",
      "text": "Where packaging or a packaged product is manufactured under a company's own name or trademark, that company is the packaging manufacturer, regardless of any other trademark visible on it, unless it is a micro-enterprise supplied from the same Member State (Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Article 3(1), point 13).",
      "source": 5
    }
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "Are we still the manufacturer in law?",
      "a": "Not under the product safety acts for the private-label version: there the manufacturer is whoever markets the product under its own name or trademark. You are a supplier that the retailer must be able to name to authorities. Under product liability law, the company that actually produced a defective product is a manufacturer as well."
    },
    {
      "q": "Must the test reports be reissued in the retailer's name?",
      "a": "No. The Commission's Blue Guide says an own-brand manufacturer must possess the documentation and certificates that demonstrate conformity, but they do not need to be under its name. It must be clear that they cover the specific product placed on the market."
    },
    {
      "q": "Can the contract put all responsibility back on us?",
      "a": "Between the two companies, cost and recourse are set by agreement. Towards authorities, the Blue Guide states that a manufacturer may in no circumstances discharge itself from its responsibilities to a subcontractor. Towards an injured person, liability cannot be limited or excluded by contract (Directive (EU) 2024/2853, Article 15)."
    },
    {
      "q": "The retailer wants to change the colour and the packaging. Does that matter?",
      "a": "It can. A change in design or characteristics must be taken into account in the conformity work (Low Voltage Directive, Article 6(4)). Check each requested change against the risk analysis and the test reports before agreeing, and document the result."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety (consolidated text of 29 May 2026)",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02023R0988-20260529",
      "accessed": "2026-10-05"
    },
    {
      "title": "Directive 2014/35/EU on electrical equipment designed for use within certain voltage limits (consolidated text of 30 May 2026)",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02014L0035-20260530",
      "accessed": "2026-10-05"
    },
    {
      "title": "The 'Blue Guide' on the implementation of EU product rules 2022 (2022/C 247/01)",
      "publisher": "European Commission, via EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52022XC0629(04)",
      "accessed": "2026-10-05"
    },
    {
      "title": "Directive (EU) 2024/2853 on liability for defective products",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32024L2853",
      "accessed": "2026-10-05"
    },
    {
      "title": "Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on packaging and packaging waste",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32025R0040",
      "accessed": "2026-10-05"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "own-brand-import",
    "which-role-are-we",
    "contract-compliance-clauses",
    "product-change-recheck",
    "supplier-changed-component",
    "retailer-packaging-data"
  ],
  "reviewer": "Conphora compliance team",
  "reviewedAt": "2026-10-05",
  "notice": "General information, not legal advice."
}