Making sure what you import, own-brand or dropship is legal to sell

Written for online shops in the UK selling on their own site or on marketplaces: direct-to-consumer brands, private-label and FBA sellers, dropshippers and subscription sellers.

The short version

1. Check whether the law treats you as producer.Own-branding goods, or importing them when the maker is not in the UK, puts the producer's duties on you, whatever the supplier says.
2. Hold the safety paperwork before you list.Get the supplier's Declaration of Conformity and test reports, and the marking your category needs. Make the paperwork a condition of payment.
3. Act at once on an unsafe product.Stop selling on every channel, tell Trading Standards or OPSS straight away, recall it from buyers and tell your insurer.

An online shop rarely makes what it sells, but the law often treats it as if it did. A business that puts its own brand on goods, or imports them when the manufacturer is not in the UK, takes on the producer's duties. Dropshippers and white-label sellers are usually in that position, whatever the supplier's paperwork says.

Markings: UKCA and CE

Where the product regime requires a mark (toys, electrical equipment, radio equipment, PPE, machinery), use UKCA or CE. Great Britain recognises CE marking indefinitely for most of these regimes; Northern Ireland needs CE. The importer's name and UK address go on the product or its packaging. As of Oct 2026.

The government extended CE recognition in GB indefinitely for most regimes in 2023, so relabelling is often wasted work.

Category rules that catch online sellers

• Cosmetics: a GB Responsible Person, a product information file, a safety report signed by a qualified safety assessor, SCPN notification before the product goes on sale, and an English label with the Responsible Person's GB address, ingredients, batch and durability. Northern Ireland and EU sales need an EU Responsible Person and CPNP notification instead.
• Toys: technical file, Declaration of Conformity, marking and age warnings. Small parts and magnets cause most listing removals and recalls.
• Electricals: UK mains plugs to BS 1363. Connectable products must meet the PSTI security regime: no universal default passwords, a published way to report vulnerabilities, and a stated minimum security update period.
• Food supplements: only authorised health claims, authorisation for novel foods (CBD included), and registration as a food business with your local authority at least 28 days before trading. As of Oct 2026.
• Textiles and furniture: fibre names and percentages on textiles, and fire-safety labels on upholstered furniture.
• Electrical waste (WEEE): if you import electrical goods or sell them under your own brand, you are a WEEE producer and join a compliance scheme, or register directly with the regulator if you place under 5 tonnes a year on the market. As a seller you also offer free like-for-like take-back or join the Distributor Take-back Scheme and tell customers where to recycle. As of Oct 2026.
• Batteries: selling 32 kg or more of portable batteries a year means taking back waste portable batteries free of charge. As of Oct 2026.

Packaging: are you a producer?

Packaging EPR applies if your turnover is over £1 million and you handle over 25 tonnes of packaging a year, counting own-brand packaging, the mailers, boxes and void fill you add, and filled packaging you import. Small producers (£1 million to £2 million and over 25 tonnes, or over £1 million and 25 to 50 tonnes) report once a year by 1 April and pay no waste management fees. Large producers (over £2 million and over 50 tonnes) report twice a year, by 1 October and 1 April, pay waste management fees invoiced by PackUK and meet recycling obligations with PRNs or PERNs. Every producer registers through the Report Packaging Data service. As of Oct 2026.

If you find a product is unsafe

1. Stop selling.Take the listing down on every channel.
2. Notify.Tell Trading Standards or OPSS forthwith.
3. Recall.Contact the customers who bought it and get the product back.
4. Tell your insurer.Notify the insurer at once, admit nothing, and keep batch and supplier records so the claim can pass upstream.

Asked in Greymill

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