Defines the scope of products our wiki covers, and how regulators draw the line between goods and services.
🏛Compiled from an official source — the facts on this page are reproduced from the issuing authority’s own published notice, which is linked on this page. No AI-generated text appears on this page. How we use AI →
On ProductGuru, a product is a discrete, individually-identifiable physical item that is offered for sale to a final consumer or business buyer. Legal definitions vary by jurisdiction and by domain (food, medical device, chemical mixture), but every entry we publish is anchored to a barcode (GTIN-13 / GTIN-12 / GTIN-8) or to a regulator-issued identifier (EPA Registration Number, NPN, FCC ID, UDI). That anchor is what makes a product traceable across recalls, certifications and ingredient registers.
How the EU defines a product
Under Directive 2001/95/EC (General Product Safety Directive) and its 2023 successor Regulation (EU) 2023/988, a product is any item, including in the context of providing a service, intended for consumers or likely under reasonably foreseeable conditions to be used by consumers, even if not intended for them. The same Regulation extends to refurbished goods, online marketplaces and software that controls a physical good.
How the US defines a consumer product
Under 15 U.S.C. § 2052(a)(5) the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Act defines a consumer product as any article, or component part thereof, produced or distributed for sale to a consumer for use in or around a permanent or temporary household or residence, a school, in recreation, or otherwise. The statute then carves out goods regulated by other agencies (tobacco → ATF; firearms → ATF; food/drug/medical device/cosmetic → FDA; motor vehicles → NHTSA; pesticides → EPA; aircraft → FAA).
Why we focus on items with a barcode
A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the smallest unit of identification that is globally unique and machine-readable. Goods without a barcode are real goods, but they are typically either (a) bulk commodities (grains, fuels) sold by weight or volume, (b) custom or one-off manufactured items, or (c) services. None of those map cleanly to the public recall / registry / labeling regimes our wiki tracks. So we surface a wiki page only when a GTIN, EAN, UPC, ISBN, EPA Registration Number, NPN, FCC ID or UDI exists.
Goods vs services vs digital
Software, subscriptions and pure-digital downloads are not products in the safety-regulation sense — they fall under separate consumer-protection regimes (e.g. the EU Digital Services Act and the U.S. FTC Act). Items that are physical but bundled with software (a thermostat with an app, an EV with OTA updates) are products for safety purposes, with the software treated as a component (EU 2023/988 Art. 6).
ProductGuru summarises public regulatory information. We are not lawyers, regulators or product-safety consultants. Citations on this page link to the underlying official source; consult those sources, or qualified counsel in your jurisdiction, before relying on any claim for a commercial decision.