Maximum fine figures — €100,000 in Germany, €900,000 in the Netherlands, €5,000,000 in Italy — are frequently cited in GPSR compliance materials. But what are EU authorities actually fining stores for, and what are the real penalty amounts? Here is what published enforcement data shows.
Germany: Bundesnetzagentur and state offices
Germany's enforcement activity has been the most documented in the first year of GPSR. Published decisions from state consumer protection offices (Verbraucherschutzbehörden) show the following patterns:
- Abmahnungen (cease and desist letters) from competitors and consumer associations: These are private-law enforcement actions, not regulatory fines. An Abmahnung typically demands immediate compliance and costs the recipient €1,000–€3,000 in legal fees if the claim is valid. Hundreds of Abmahnungen have been issued since December 2024, primarily targeting missing manufacturer information and inadequate Impressum disclosures.
- Regulatory warnings (Verwarnungen): First-time GPSR violations by otherwise compliant businesses typically result in a formal warning with a compliance deadline of 30 days, rather than an immediate fine. However, failure to comply after a warning triggers higher penalties.
- Fines (Bußgelder): Published cases show fines ranging from €2,000 to €45,000 for individual violations. Systematic non-compliance across a product catalogue — where the same violation affects dozens of product listings — is treated as multiple violations, and fines are cumulative.
France: DGCCRF sector reports
The DGCCRF publishes annual sector inspection reports (bilans de contrôle). Key findings for ecommerce from 2025 surveillance programmes:
- In the toy sector inspection (Q3 2025), 34% of online toy listings reviewed were found non-compliant — primarily for missing CE marking documentation and inadequate French-language safety warnings.
- In the electrical appliance sector, 28% of listings were non-compliant, most commonly for missing manufacturer address on product pages and missing EU Responsible Person information.
- Published fine amounts in the DGCCRF's 2025 decisions range from €5,000 to €22,000 per enforcement case, with the highest cases involving repeated violations across multiple product lines.
Netherlands: ACM and NVWA
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) jointly enforce GPSR for consumer products. The Netherlands has one of the EU's most aggressive fine structures (up to €900,000), but enforcement decisions show that actual fines applied to ecommerce sellers in 2025 have been significantly lower for first-time violations:
- ACM has focused its GPSR enforcement on platform operators (marketplaces) rather than individual sellers, consistent with GPSR Article 22's platform obligations.
- NVWA inspections in the toy, food contact, and electronics categories have resulted in product withdrawal orders and compliance deadlines rather than large fines — for now. The pattern in other sectors suggests that 2026 will see higher penalty applications as the "awareness phase" ends.
What is actually being fined most often
Across published enforcement decisions from Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Austria, the five most commonly cited violations in penalty decisions are:
- Missing manufacturer identity — name and/or address not present on product page or packaging. Present in over 70% of enforcement cases.
- Missing product identifier — no model number, batch reference, or type designation. Present in approximately 55% of cases.
- Safety warnings not in local language — English-only warnings for non-English-speaking markets. Common in toy and electronics sectors.
- Missing EU Responsible Person — non-EU brands without a disclosed EU contact. Heavily targeted for Chinese-origin goods sold via European logistics hubs.
- Inadequate withdrawal right disclosure — 14-day right buried in T&Cs without prominent pre-purchase visibility. Common across all categories.
The real financial risk for small stores
For small ecommerce stores, the primary financial risk is not a six-figure regulatory fine — it is the combination of:
- Competitor Abmahnungen (Germany) creating €1,000–€5,000 legal costs per notice
- Marketplace listing suspension (Amazon, Zalando) leading to revenue loss during the compliance remediation period
- Initial regulatory fines in the €2,000–€25,000 range
- Costs of emergency compliance remediation (translation, legal review, product labelling changes)
The aggregate cost of non-compliance for a small store receiving a German Abmahnung, Amazon listing suspension, and DGCCRF warning simultaneously can easily reach €15,000–€30,000 — without any single "big" fine. This is the scenario that GPSR compliance tools are designed to prevent.
Scan your store now to identify which GPSR violations you are currently exposed to — before an enforcement authority or competitor does it for you.