You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Independent publisher sees boxes of books returned from Europe amid GPSR 'mess'
In the week since the European Union’s new General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) law came into effect, one independent publisher has reported having boxes of books returned from Europe.
Kevin Duffy, who runs Hebden Bridge-based independent publisher Bluemoose Books, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Another box of books returned from Ireland due to Brexit Bolleaux.
The GPSR regulations, which came into effect on 13th December, require distributors into Europe to meet risk assessment, documentation and labelling requirements, as well as having a named representative in the EU to vouch for them.
While book distributors, booksellers and publishers have managed to make the necessary changes, some said last week they were caught “off guard” by the law. Duffy told The Bookseller books were being returned without “explanation”.
He said: “It’s the randomness of it all. Some books are going through, but many are not and the customer is also then faced with a fee to pay, which means they’re returned to us.”
He added: “Even getting proofs over is proving virtually impossible so getting our titles to literary editors and reviewers and talked about prior to publication is proving especially difficult. It’s a mess and there doesn’t to be anyone out there with any explanation as to why books are being returned.”
According to the new law, publishers are responsible for ensuring books being shipped to Europe are GPSR compliant. Although some in the industry have complained about a lack of clarity around responsibility, Editeur, the trade standards body for the global book, e-book, audiobook and serials supply chains, is working to help publishers remain compliant through its metadata.
Continues...
Read More
David Aldridge, chief technology officer, Consonance.app, told The Bookseller: “Editeur has been typically quick to respond to the need to carry GPSR information in ONIX, but passing contact details from publisher to retailer requires an unbroken chain of systems that supports the very latest standard ONIX standard 3.1.2.
“Keeping at the cutting edge of ONIX versions is likely not a priority in the last quarter of the year for metadata aggregators, distributors and retailers, with all organisations wary of disrupting their systems in the run up to the holiday season. We’re not currently aware of any ONIX-based route for getting full GPSR contact information into the hands of retailers.”
Aldridge says some large organisations are providing non-ONIX workarounds, but says there’s a lot of uncertainty about the effectiveness of the metadata supply chain in this case.
