The European Union’s General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR), is causing some mainland U.K. businesses to stop selling products to customers in Northern Ireland and EU countries. 

BBC News reports small and medium businesses are being affected the most by the rules, which came into effect December 13, creating new requirements for Great Britain businesses, including the need to have an agent in Northern Ireland or the EU.

As a consequence, some businesses have stopped or suspended sales to Northern Ireland and the EU. 

A Loose End from Brexit

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to give it its full title. Scotland, Wales and England make up the remainder, all sharing the island of Britain. When the U.K. opted in 2016 to leave the single market in what’s commonly known as Brexit, it agreed a compromise over the issue that Northern Ireland shares a border with the nation state of the Republic of Ireland, which remains in the EU. Northern Ireland’s prior membership of the EU, as part of the U.K. meant there was effectively an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, so the U.K. and the EU made a deal — known as the Windsor Framework — which came into effect in October 2023, keeping trade flowing freely between the province and the country. This puts in place a de facto Irish Sea trade border for goods moving to Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

The EU has been working on GPSR since 2020, and it was approved by the European Parliament in May 2023. It updates existing rules to reflect the growth of online commerce, and aims to give better protections to consumers. That includes the need to have a "responsible person," effectively a compliance agent, inside the EU or Northern Ireland.

That is a particular challenge for small businesses in Great Britain who are selling direct to consumers, and have no physical presence in the EU or Northern Ireland.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling on the U.K. government to give better export support to firms.