EU Safety Gate 2025 Report: Record Alerts and GPSR Compliance Guide

As EU product-safety enforcement becomes more data-driven and more coordinated, the Safety Gate 2025 report gives one of the clearest signals yet of where compliance pressure is increasing.

The European Commission’s latest report confirms that 2025 was the most active year on record for dangerous non-food product alerts in the EU and EEA. National authorities validated 4,671 alerts and reported 5,794 follow-up actions, the highest totals since the system began in 2003. For manufacturers, importers, distributors, and online sellers, this matters because the figures show not only more enforcement, but also faster cross-border action, more chemical scrutiny, and stronger online-marketplace oversight under the General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988.

Overview

According to the Safety Gate 2025 report, the EU and EEA recorded 4,671 alerts for dangerous non-food products in 2025. This was a 13% increase compared with 2024 and more than double the level reported in 2022. In parallel, authorities issued 5,794 follow-up actions, which shows that alerts are increasingly leading to real enforcement steps across multiple countries.

This is exactly the kind of trend businesses should pay attention to under the GPSR. The regulation now applies across the EU consumer product landscape and strengthens obligations around traceability, corrective action, recall handling, online-marketplace accountability, and the availability of technical documentation. If you need a practical overview, see what EaseCert offers and our EU compliance guide.

Key Findings from the Safety Gate 2025 Report

• 4,671 alerts were validated in 2025, the highest annual number since the system launched.
• 5,794 follow-up actions were validated, showing that other authorities increasingly react once an alert is circulated.
• The three most frequently notified product categories were cosmetics (36%), toys (16%), and electrical appliances and equipment (11%).
• The three most frequently notified risks were chemical risk (53%), injuries (14%), and choking (9%).
• Authorities sharply increased action against cosmetics containing BMHCA (Lilial), and also began notifying nail polish containing TPO, which was banned in cosmetic products in 2025.
• The Commission’s eSurveillance web crawler scanned more than 1.6 million URLs in 2025 and found more than 20,800 listings offering products already identified as dangerous.
• By the end of 2025, more than 1,200 online marketplaces had registered through the Safety Gate portal.

Together, these figures show that enforcement is no longer limited to isolated border checks or occasional lab reviews. It is now a connected EU-wide system that combines national inspections, digital surveillance, online-platform obligations, and coordinated removal activity.

Top 6 Most Active Market-Surveillance Authorities in 2025

Based on the official country-by-country figures in the Safety Gate 2025 report, the following Member States issued the highest number of alerts in 2025:

• Italy – 1,193 alerts: Italy remained by far the most active notifying country in the system. This confirms that products entering or circulating in the Italian market face a particularly high probability of inspection and notification.
• Germany – 465 alerts: Germany remained one of the central enforcement markets in Europe, with strong activity and a very sharp increase in follow-up actions.
• France – 455 alerts: France moved significantly upward and remains one of the most important compliance markets for consumer goods sold in the EU.
• Sweden – 384 alerts: Sweden continued its strong enforcement profile, especially in areas linked to chemicals and consumer safety.
• Czechia – 359 alerts: Czech authorities remained highly active in product testing and notification work.
• Hungary – 317 alerts: Hungary continued to be one of the most active product-safety authorities in Central Europe.

These six countries alone accounted for a very large share of all alerts in 2025. For many brands, they should be treated as priority markets when planning multilingual labelling, document readiness, and product testing strategy.

Why the 2025 Data Matters More Than Last Year

The 2025 report is important not just because the totals increased, but because it shows how enforcement is changing.

First, follow-up actions rose strongly. That means a product found in one Member State is more likely to trigger inspections and measures elsewhere. In practical terms, a compliance failure is less likely to stay local.

Second, authorities are acting faster around new chemical restrictions. The report highlights that national authorities quickly started notifying nail polish containing TPO shortly after the substance was banned in cosmetics in September 2025. This is a strong sign that enforcement teams are tracking regulatory changes more closely and translating them into rapid market action.

Third, online enforcement is getting more sophisticated. The Commission’s digital tools now support authorities in identifying dangerous products still offered online after an alert has already been issued. That makes it harder for non-compliant listings to remain visible across webshops and marketplaces.

Chemical Risk Remains the Main Enforcement Driver

The dominant pattern in 2025 was clear: chemical risk was the leading cause of alerts, representing 53% of all notifications. This was heavily influenced by cosmetics, which remained the most frequently notified product category for the third consecutive year.

A particularly important point in the report is the continued focus on BMHCA (Lilial). The Commission notes that 77% of cosmetic chemical-risk alerts related to this substance. BMHCA has been prohibited in cosmetics since March 2022 due to concerns linked to reproductive toxicity and skin sensitisation.

The report also highlights TPO in nail polish as an emerging enforcement issue. This matters because it shows that businesses cannot rely on older supplier files or outdated declarations when substance restrictions change. Documentation and formula reviews need to be kept current, especially for cosmetics, children’s products, and electronics with chemical exposure risks.

For broader context on chemical compliance, see our guide to REACH, RoHS, and POPs compliance.

The Most Frequently Notified Product Categories in 2025

The report identifies three product categories that dominated Safety Gate alerts in 2025:

• Cosmetics (36%)
• Toys (16%)
• Electrical appliances and equipment (11%)

This is useful for risk prioritisation. If your business sells in one of these categories, you should assume closer scrutiny. That means not only a stronger focus on product composition and testing, but also on labelling, age grading, safety warnings, traceability, and file readiness.

If you sell toys or children’s products, review our guidance on toy safety in the EU and product age grading. If you sell electrical products, labelling and technical-file structure become even more important, especially where GPSR and sector legislation interact.

Follow-up Actions Show Stronger Cross-Border Enforcement

The 5,794 follow-up actions reported in 2025 are one of the most important figures in the report. An alert does not stop with the country that first identified the product. Other authorities search their own markets, check whether the same item is also available domestically or online, and then report what they found and what they did.

This means a weak label, missing Responsible Person details, absent conformity documents, or incomplete technical records can create a wider EU problem very quickly. Businesses should not think in terms of one-country compliance. They should think in terms of an interconnected enforcement network.

From a practical compliance perspective, this increases the value of having the following ready at all times:

• a complete and current technical file,
• a product-specific risk analysis,
• clear traceability information,
• the correct EU economic operator details,
• consumer-facing warnings in the correct languages, and
• an immediately retrievable EU Declaration of Conformity, where applicable.

For document structure, see our GPSR technical file documentation guide and the GPSR risk analysis process.

Online Marketplaces Are Under Much More Pressure

One of the clearest changes in the 2025 landscape is the stronger focus on online sales channels.

According to the Commission, the eSurveillance web crawler scanned more than 1.6 million URLs in all EU official languages in 2025 and identified more than 20,800 URLs containing dangerous products already flagged in Safety Gate. In parallel, more than 1,200 online marketplaces had registered through the Safety Gate system by the end of 2025.

For brands and online sellers, this has two direct consequences:

• dangerous products are easier for authorities to detect online, even after they have already been removed in one market, and
• marketplaces themselves are now more directly tied into the enforcement chain.

If you sell through marketplaces, review our article on EU Safety Gate registration and make sure your marketplace compliance setup is aligned with your broader GPSR documentation.

What This Means for Manufacturers, Importers, and Brands

The 2025 report sends a simple message: documentation quality and speed of retrieval matter more than ever.

Under Article 9 of the GPSR, products made available in the EU must carry the relevant safety and traceability information in a language easily understood by consumers in the Member States concerned. In practice, authorities increasingly expect businesses to provide this information clearly, consistently, and without delay.

Companies should therefore review whether they can immediately provide:

• manufacturer details and, where required, the EU Responsible Person details,
• traceability identifiers such as model, batch, lot, or serial references,
• complete warnings and safe-use instructions,
• evidence supporting chemical and material compliance,
• internal risk assessment records, and
• corrective-action and recall procedures.

If this information is split across suppliers, agencies, old spreadsheets, and outdated label files, the business is more exposed when an authority requests evidence.

EaseCert’s Recommended Compliance Priorities for 2026

1) Recheck technical documentation

Review product files now, especially for categories under high chemical or child-safety scrutiny. Make sure the file reflects the product currently sold, not an older version.

2) Review ingredient and material restrictions

If you sell cosmetics, toys, electrical products, or mixed-material consumer goods, confirm that no restricted or newly banned substances remain in formulas or components.

3) Check label language coverage

Warnings and safety information should match the Member States where the product is made available. For more on structure, see labelling requirements for GPSR compliance.

4) Confirm Responsible Person and traceability details

Make sure the economic operator information is correct and consistent across product, packaging, inserts, declarations, and internal records.

5) Prepare for online-marketplace scrutiny

If you sell via platforms, verify that listing content, images, warnings, and compliance references align with the physical product and the file behind it.

6) Treat high-alert countries as priority markets

Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Czechia, and Hungary deserve particular attention because they continue to generate large volumes of Safety Gate notifications.

Official Sources

• Safety Gate 2025 Report
  
• Safety Gate Portal
• General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988
• Your Europe, labels and markings guidance
• Product safety obligations for businesses
• Mandatory online marketplace registration