Understand your obligations and next steps under the latest EU regulations

Please see below important updates regarding the introduction of two new regulations introduced by the European Union that have implications for all publishers distributing to the EU and Northern Ireland.

I appreciate there is a lot here, but please do read through the below and the attached or linked documents.

1. EUDR

The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) aims to combat deforestation by ensuring that products entering the European Economic Area (EEA) are deforestation-free. This regulation applies to commodities derived from forests, and imposes due diligence, traceability and record-keeping obligations on companies producing paper and printing magazines.

The Regulation comes into effect from December 31st 2025 and all publishers selling in the EU and Northern Ireland are required to ensure their products are compliant with the stipulations of the EUDR.

Following our previous correspondence on EUDR at the end of May, the attached EUDR Briefing document has been co-written by UK Distributors and is being sent to all clients to ensure that there is consistency of message to UK magazine publishers.

Please read through the document as there is important information in it regarding publisher responsibilities, required next steps as well as links to useful websites that will help you navigate the EUDR.

We will also be sending you an EUDR questionnaire to help us understand where each of our clients are on their EUDR journey and to also provide information we need at this stage to help our preparations for the regulation’s introduction at the end of the year. Please take 5 minutes to provide us with the information requested.

If you have any questions on the document or on EUDR in general, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me directly and I will do my best to help you navigate this.

2. GPSR

The General Product Safety Regulation  (GPSR) is a new key instrument in the EU product safety legal framework. It replaced the current General Product Safety Directive and the Food Imitating Product Directive from 13 December 2024 .The GPSR requires that all consumer products on the EU markets are safe and establishes specific obligations for supplying businesses to ensure they adhere. Key within the directive is the requirement for non-EU-based companies to have an authorised EU-based representative to perform certain tasks on behalf of the manufacturer/importer.

How does this impact InterMedia Publishers?

Despite original consensus at the end of 2024 that the GPSR did not directly impact the regular export / delivery of magazines and publications into the EU and Northern Ireland, online sales via platforms such as Amazon FBA are much stricter, requiring all products to conform to the new GSPR regulations. This includes products for sale in Northern Ireland.

With support from the PPA we have been reviewing the regulation and have published a guideline document in conjunction with Lewis Silkin, a law firm. It is now advised that publishers appoint a local EU authorised representative and start to include GPSR wording on flannel panels to demonstrate adherence to GPSR.

A link to this latest guidance is below. https://ppa.co.uk/eu-general-product-safety-regulation-gpsr

Authrorised representation can be achieved at relatively low cost per annum (<£500) and will provide a simple solution to this issue. We can share details of the company we are appointing for this purpose if needed.

If you have any questions relating to GPSR, please contact a member of our team at getintouch@inter-media.co.uk.