{
  "type": "problem",
  "slug": "second-hand-refurbished",
  "lang": "en",
  "url": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/second-hand-refurbished/",
  "markdown": "https://www.conphora.com/solutions/problem/second-hand-refurbished.md",
  "title": "We sell refurbished products and are asked for safety proof",
  "description": "Used and refurbished products sold to consumers must be safe. What EU law requires, when refurbishing makes you the manufacturer, and what to document.",
  "answer": "The General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 applies to products whether new, used, repaired or reconditioned, so a refurbished product sold to consumers must be safe (Articles 2(3) and 5). Record what you inspect, repair and replace, keep the original identification and safety information with each unit, and assess whether your work changes the product enough to make you its manufacturer.",
  "theme": {
    "id": "marketplace-retailer",
    "label": "Marketplace and retailer demands"
  },
  "roles": [
    {
      "id": "online-seller",
      "label": "Online seller"
    },
    {
      "id": "distributor",
      "label": "Distributor"
    }
  ],
  "regulations": [
    "GPSR"
  ],
  "path": [
    "regulation-library",
    "free-compliance-check"
  ],
  "trigger": "A marketplace, a business customer or an authority asks how you know that the used or refurbished products you sell are safe",
  "keep": null,
  "why": [
    {
      "text": "Used goods are not outside product safety law. The General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 applies to products placed or made available on the market whether new, used, repaired or reconditioned (Article 2(3)), and economic operators may place or make available only safe products (Article 5). There are two narrow exclusions: products to be repaired or reconditioned prior to being used, where they are made available as such and clearly marked as such (Article 2(3)), and antiques, meaning products such as collectors' items for which consumers cannot reasonably expect state-of-the-art safety standards (Articles 2(2)(i) and 3(28)).",
      "sources": [
        1
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "A business that resells used products is normally a distributor. Before making a product available it verifies that the identifier, the manufacturer's and importer's details and the instructions and safety information are in place (Article 12(1)), and it must not make available a product it has reason to believe is unsafe or lacks them (Article 12(3)). When the product is offered online, the offer shows the manufacturer, the product identification and the warnings (Article 19). Safety is assessed among other things on the product's characteristics, its presentation and instructions, and the consumers likely to use it (Article 6(1)). A unit first placed on the market before 13 December 2024 that complied with the old General Product Safety Directive may still be made available (Article 51), and the Commission's guidelines state that the GPSR's new identification and contact requirements do not apply to it (Commission Notice C/2025/6233, section 2.1).",
      "sources": [
        1,
        4
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "Refurbishing raises the question of who the manufacturer is. A person other than the manufacturer that substantially modifies a product is deemed to be a manufacturer for the part affected, or for the whole product if the modification affects its safety (Article 13(2)). A modification is substantial where it has an impact on safety, changes the product in a manner not foreseen in the initial risk assessment, and changes the nature of the hazard, creates a new hazard or increases the level of risk (Article 13(3)). The Commission's Blue Guide draws the same line for CE products: products repaired without becoming new do not need a new conformity assessment, even where better spare parts are used, while a product subject to important changes that modify its original performance, purpose or type must be considered new.",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2
      ]
    },
    {
      "text": "For CE products, the timing decides which regime applies. A CE act applies when the product is placed on the market and until it reaches the end-user; once it has reached the end-user it is no longer a new product and the act no longer applies, except to used products imported from a third country, which must comply when they enter the Union market for the first time (Blue Guide, section 2.1). The Blue Guide places used products already on the Union market and supplied to consumers under the general product safety rules, and the GPSR replaced those rules (Article 50(2)). Conphora therefore reads the GPSR as applying in full, including Articles 12 and 13, to the resale of a used CE product, because no CE act applies to that sale. The exception for products under Union harmonisation legislation (Article 2(1), third subparagraph, point (b)) does not take these articles away. If the refurbishment makes the product new under the CE act, that act applies again, with a new conformity assessment, CE marking and declaration under your name.",
      "sources": [
        1,
        2
      ]
    }
  ],
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "Sort the stock by origin and product type",
      "text": "Separate units that were already on the EU market from used units you bring in from outside the Union; the second group enters the market for the first time and meets the full product rules with you as importer or, for CE products, in the manufacturer's role. Note for each product type which acts apply to it.",
      "item": "free-compliance-check"
    },
    {
      "name": "Write down the refurbishment process per model",
      "text": "Describe what is inspected, which functional and safety checks are run, which parts are replaced and with what, and what makes a unit fail. Check the model against published recalls before it goes back on sale. Keep the record per unit or batch."
    },
    {
      "name": "Decide whether the work is a repair or a modification",
      "text": "Restoring a product to its original condition with identical or similar parts is repair. A change that was not foreseen in the original risk assessment and that creates a new hazard or raises the risk is a substantial modification, and makes you the manufacturer of what you changed."
    },
    {
      "name": "Keep identification, maker details and instructions with the unit",
      "text": "Do not remove or cover the type or serial number, the manufacturer's name and address or the warnings. Supply the instructions and safety information in the buyer's language, in print or as the manufacturer provides them, unless the product can be used safely without."
    },
    {
      "name": "Describe the product truthfully in the offer",
      "text": "State that the product is used or refurbished and show the manufacturer, the product identification and the warnings in the online offer. Mark units sold for repair or reconditioning clearly as such, and do not present them as ready for use."
    }
  ],
  "documents": [
    {
      "name": "Refurbishment record per unit or batch: checks, results, parts replaced",
      "from": "Your workshop or your refurbishment partner",
      "ground": "GPSR Articles 5 and 14"
    },
    {
      "name": "Original product identification and manufacturer details on the unit",
      "from": "The product",
      "ground": "GPSR Articles 9(5) and (6) and 12(1)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Instructions and safety information in the language of the country of sale",
      "from": "The original manufacturer, supplied by you",
      "ground": "GPSR Articles 9(7) and 12(1)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Risk analysis and technical documentation for a substantially modified product",
      "from": "You as manufacturer of the modification",
      "ground": "GPSR Articles 9(2) and 13(2)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Records of where each unit came from and to whom it was sold",
      "from": "Your purchase and sales systems",
      "ground": "GPSR Article 15(3) and (5)"
    }
  ],
  "risks": [
    {
      "title": "Refurbishing can make you the manufacturer",
      "text": "A person other than the manufacturer that substantially modifies a product is deemed to be a manufacturer, for the part affected by the modification or for the entire product if the modification has an impact on its safety (GPSR Article 13(2)).",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "A doubtful unit may not be sold",
      "text": "A distributor that has reason to believe that a product is not safe or lacks its identification, maker details or instructions must not make it available until it has been brought into conformity (GPSR Article 12(3)).",
      "source": 1
    },
    {
      "title": "Liability for the modified product",
      "text": "For products placed on the market or put into service from 9 December 2026, a person that substantially modifies a product outside the manufacturer's control and then makes it available is considered a manufacturer for product liability (Directive (EU) 2024/2853, Article 8(2)).",
      "source": 3
    }
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "q": "Does a refurbished CE product need a new declaration of conformity?",
      "a": "Not when it has only been repaired. The Commission's Blue Guide says repaired products that are not considered new do not undergo conformity assessment again. A product whose performance, purpose or type was modified so that the hazard changed or the risk increased counts as new, and the modifier takes on the manufacturer's obligations."
    },
    {
      "q": "Can we sell untested units as sold for parts or repair?",
      "a": "The GPSR does not apply to products to be repaired or reconditioned prior to being used, where they are made available as such and are clearly marked as such (Article 2(3)). The exclusion covers that case only, not a product presented as ready for use."
    },
    {
      "q": "We import used products from outside the EU. What changes?",
      "a": "They are placed on the Union market for the first time. The Blue Guide states that harmonisation legislation then applies to used and second-hand products just as to new ones, even when they were manufactured before the legislation applied, and that whoever places second-hand products from a third country on the Union market must assume the role of the manufacturer (section 3.1)."
    },
    {
      "q": "We sell refurbished goods under our own brand. Who is the manufacturer?",
      "a": "You are. A person that places a product on the market under its own name or trademark is deemed to be the manufacturer (GPSR Article 13(1)). The Blue Guide adds that a modified product sold under another name than the original manufacturer's should be considered new."
    }
  ],
  "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": "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": "Commission Notice — Guidelines on the application of the EU general product safety legislative framework by businesses (C/2025/6233)",
      "publisher": "EUR-Lex",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/6233/oj",
      "accessed": "2026-10-05"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "which-role-are-we",
    "product-change-recheck",
    "distributor-duties",
    "product-on-safety-gate",
    "parallel-import",
    "product-images-warnings"
  ],
  "reviewer": "Conphora compliance team",
  "reviewedAt": "2026-10-05",
  "notice": "General information, not legal advice."
}