Governing act
Reg. (EU) 2023/988
Function
Article 16 operator
Established in
Slovenia, EU
Activation
2 working days

The EU address your products are missing.

If your company sits outside the European Union, every product you place on the EU market needs an economic operator established inside it — named on the packaging, holding the documentation, answering to the authorities. We are that operator, and we are a real company in Ljubljana with a director whose name is on this page.

Product packaging, close-up of the printed EU Responsible Person block with our Ljubljana address

Our address block on a client's packaging.

The requirement

No operator in the Union, no product on the market

Reg. (EU) 2023/988 · Art. 16(1)–(3) · in force since 13 Dec 2024

The General Product Safety Regulation forbids placing a consumer product on the EU market unless an economic operator established in the Union is responsible for it. That operator's name and address must appear with the product. The operator keeps the technical documentation, verifies that the required safety information is present, cooperates with market surveillance authorities and acts when a product turns out to be unsafe.

Marketplaces enforce this on their own account. Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Kaufland, Allegro and bol.com all collect responsible-person data per listing, and an offer without it is suppressed — usually with no warning and no grace period.

How it fits together

Where we sit in the chain

YouManufacturer or seller outside the EU
Altex Group d.o.o.EU economic operator established in Slovenia
Market surveillanceauthority, customs, marketplace
Consumer

You keep the product, the factory and the commercial decisions.

We hold the documentation, carry the name on the packaging and answer the letters.

They address the operator inside the Union — not your office abroad.

Nothing about your supply chain changes. What changes is that there is now an address in the Union that answers for the product.

The costly misunderstanding

A German VAT number is not an EU establishment

Seen on most non-EU storefronts

A seller registered in Shenzhen, Hong Kong or Delaware shows DE456999802 on its seller profile and concludes the EU box is ticked. It is not. VAT registration gives you the right to pay tax in Germany. It does not create a legal person inside the Union, and a tax number cannot hold your technical file or answer a market surveillance officer.

These are two separate obligations under two separate bodies of law. Your tax agent has solved one of them. We solve the other.

Before you pay anyone

You may not need a responsible person at all

You do not need to appoint one if an economic operator established in the Union already takes responsibility for your products. That is the case if:

  • an EU-established importer buys your goods and places them on the EU market, or
  • an EU-established fulfilment service provider has agreed in writing to take on the responsible-person obligations, or
  • your own company has a subsidiary or branch established in an EU member state.

If one of these applies, tell us and we will say so. We would rather lose a sale than take a fee for an appointment you do not need.

Scope

What we take on — and what we refuse

A responsible person who accepts everything is worth nothing to you, because the first serious incident ends the service for all of its clients at once. Our restrictions are what make the appointment durable.

Included in the appointment

  • +Our name and Slovenian address as the EU economic operator, on packaging and in listings
  • +Custody of the declaration of conformity and technical file, kept available for ten years
  • +Verification that required safety and warning information is present per product family
  • +Receipt of and response to market-surveillance correspondence, forwarded to you the same day
  • +Incident and accident notification through the EU Safety Business Gateway
  • +Maintenance of the responsible-person entry across your EU marketplace accounts
  • +Notification to marketplaces if the appointment ends, so you are never silently unrepresented
  • +One mandate covers every EU marketplace and all 27 member states, and is drafted to extend to ESPR obligations as they take effect

Categories we do not accept

  • Toys and childcare articles
  • Mains-powered goods and anything with a lithium cell
  • Cosmetics and products applied to the skin
  • Personal protective equipment
  • Machinery, power tools and pressure equipment
  • Medical devices, lasers and radio equipment

We accept low-risk consumer goods: textiles and apparel, non-electrical homeware, furniture and décor, stationery, bags and accessories, sports and leisure articles without powered components.

What is coming

The dates that matter

  1. GPSR, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, became applicable. An economic operator established in the Union is required for every consumer product on the EU market.

  2. The new Product Liability Directive (EU) 2024/2853 becomes applicable. Among other changes, a consumer may bring a claim directly against an authorised representative.

  3. The first mandatory Digital Product Passport applies to batteries under ESPR, with further product groups to follow.

We tell you which of these touch your products, and we say so when none of them do.

Pricing

No setup fee. Counted by product family, not by listing.

Starter

€99 / month

Up to 10 product families. For a seller with a focused catalogue entering the EU market. Includes everything in the scope above.

Standard

€169 / month

Up to 40 product families. Adds a one-business-day response commitment on authority correspondence, a quarterly review of your listings, and a named contact who is not a ticket queue.

Above 40 families, and for agencies and partners managing several sellers, we price on your catalogue. See Partners below.

Pay for ten months, get twelve · No setup fee · Cancel with 30 days' notice — we notify the marketplaces so nothing is left misrepresented

Why families and not SKUs.

A product family shares materials, intended use and test reports, and differs only in size or colour. One family is usually five to twenty listings. Ten families therefore cover a catalogue that a per-SKU price would count as a hundred items or more.

One mandate

All 27 member states, every marketplace

Amazon EUeBayEtsyKauflandAllegrobol.comZalando TikTok ShopAliExpressTemuShopifyWooCommerceyour own shop

The appointment attaches to your products and your company, not to a sales channel. Adding a marketplace does not require a new mandate or a new fee.

Process

From documents to a live appointment

Two working days from a complete set of documents. Twenty-four hours when a shipment is held.

Technical file — folder with declarations of conformity and test reports on a desk

The technical file we keep for ten years.

  1. You send the catalogue

    Product list grouped into families, with declarations of conformity, test reports and photographs of current labelling.

  2. We review and tell you what is missing

    Gaps are named before anything is signed. If a product cannot be represented responsibly, we say so instead of taking the fee.

  3. The appointment is signed

    A written mandate naming Altex Group d.o.o. as your Article 16 operator, with indemnity and termination terms in both directions.

  4. You publish our details

    We issue the exact text for your packaging and the fields for Seller Central. You update the listings; we confirm they read correctly.

Deliverables

What you actually get

Signed mandate

The appointment agreement naming Altex Group d.o.o. as your Article 16 operator, with indemnity and termination terms in both directions.

Appointment certificate

A dated PDF with a reference number, listing the product families covered and the period of validity. Show it to a marketplace, a customs broker or a buyer.

Packaging text block

The exact wording to print on your packaging and paste into your listings, in the form the regulation expects.

Public verification link

A page anyone can open to confirm the appointment is real and current. Your certificate carries the link.

Monthly status note

One email a month: what we hold, what is missing, what expires. No dashboard to log into.

No compliance score, no progress bars. Documents that do something.

Specimen

Appointment as EU Responsible Person

Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Article 16

Reference
AG-RP-[YYYY]-[NNNN]
Issued to
[ Client company, registration number, country ]
Product families
[ list ]
Valid from / until
[ date ] / [ date ]

Responsible person

ALTEX GROUP, informacijske dejavnosti, d.o.o.
Dunajska cesta 159, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Registration number 9379185000
info@altexgroup.eu

Verify this appointment at altexgroup.eu/verify/AG-RP-[YYYY]-[NNNN]

Signed for and on behalf of Altex Group d.o.o.
Konstantin Filin, Director

Specimen of the appointment certificate. Client fields shown as labels, not data.

Start here

Free listing check, ten products, one working day

Send us ten ASINs or listing links from any EU marketplace. We check what a customer and an authority actually see on those pages: whether an EU operator is displayed, whether the details resolve to a real establishment, and which of your products sit in categories that attract scrutiny.

The report is written by a person who opens your listings, not generated from a template. You get it whether or not you become a client.

Enter your company name.
Select the country where your company is established.
Enter your name.
Enter a valid e-mail address so we can send the report.
Select the marketplace your listings are on.
Paste at least one listing link or ASIN.
Tick the box so we are allowed to process your request.

Accountability

You will know whose name is on your packaging

An official letter and envelope on a desk, addressed to Altex Group d.o.o.

When an authority writes, a person reads the letter.

Your responsible person is not an anonymous platform. The mandate is signed by Konstantin Filin, director of Altex Group d.o.o., at a registered address in Ljubljana. When an authority writes, a person reads the letter and answers it — and you are told the same day.

Ask any provider you are comparing us with for the name of the person who will sign your mandate. It is a fair question, and the answer tells you what you are buying.

For partners

Add an EU operator to what you already sell

If you already serve non-EU sellers, your clients have this problem and you cannot solve it without a company inside the Union. We supply the entity and the documentation work; you keep the client relationship, the invoice and your own brand on the service.

VAT agents and tax representatives

You registered their German VAT. The operator obligation is the next question they will ask you.

Freight forwarders and 3PL warehouses

Your clients' goods are stopped at the border when no EU operator can be identified.

Testing laboratories

You issue the reports. Someone in the Union has to hold them.

Marketplace agencies

You manage the listings that get suppressed. Fix the cause, not the symptom.

Volume pricing from ten accounts, one monthly invoice, your name on the client-facing documents. Onboarding handled by us in English; no per-client contract for you to administer.

Request partner terms

Before you ask

Do you test products or issue certificates?

No. We are not a laboratory and not a notified body. We hold and verify the documentation you supply, and we refuse products whose documentation does not hold up.

We already have an EU warehouse. Is that enough?

A fulfilment centre is not automatically your economic operator, and neither is the marketplace. The obligation attaches to a legal person who accepts it in writing. If your fulfilment provider has accepted it in writing, you do not need us.

What happens if an authority writes to you about our product?

We acknowledge it, forward it to you the same day, and coordinate the response. We do not agree to corrective action on your behalf without telling you first.

Which marketplaces does one appointment cover?

All of them. The appointment is per product family and per company, not per channel — Amazon EU, eBay, Etsy, Kaufland, Allegro, bol.com and your own shop are covered by the same mandate, in all 27 member states.

Are you connected to the European Commission?

No. We are a private company performing a role the regulation assigns to private operators. Anyone claiming official status is misleading you.

How quickly can the appointment start?

Two working days from a complete set of documents, and twenty-four hours if your shipment is held at customs. Incomplete files take longer, and we will tell you exactly what is missing.

Why do you refuse whole product categories?

Because a responsible person carries real obligations for every product it represents. We take on what we can stand behind. A provider that accepts everything is telling you something about how seriously it takes the role.

The entity behind the service

Who signs the appointment

The building at Dunajska cesta 159, Ljubljana

Dunajska cesta 159, Ljubljana.

Legal entity
ALTEX GROUP, informacijske dejavnosti, d.o.o.
Registered office
Dunajska cesta 159, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Registration number
9379185000
Registered since
24 April 2023
Director
Konstantin Filin
Correspondence
info@altexgroup.eu

The text that goes on your packaging and in your listings

EU Responsible Person:
Altex Group d.o.o.
Dunajska cesta 159, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
info@altexgroup.eu