UK clothing label requirements

Clothing labels in Great Britain: fibre composition under SI 2012/1102 and Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011

Direct answer. GOV.UK says a textile label must show the fibre content, including fur and other animal parts, and that if a product has two or more components with different fibre contents, the content of each must be shown. That guidance applies to England, Scotland, and Wales. The duty is enforced in domestic law by the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1102), which apply Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 as published on legislation.gov.uk. Read Textile labelling on GOV.UK and SI 2012/1102. This page is not legal advice.

FibreLedger Textile Labels (Shopify App Store · Write a review) records fibre-composition text you enter for a Shopify product. It does not decide whether a garment label is lawful. This page is the Great Britain fibre-content duty — not the EU Annex I name catalogue.

Related: EU Food Info Guard — EU food information — allergens, origin, and nutrition before purchase.

Free check first: Textile fibre composition checker runs in your browser and sends nothing. Paste a fibre composition and see which names are on the EU Annex I list and whether the percentages add up.

What the instruments say

The explanatory note to the 2012 Regulations says they set out enforcement, including sanctions, for Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling and marking of fibre composition. The schedule of provisions they enforce includes Article 4 (products made available on the market only if labelled, marked, or accompanied by commercial documents that comply) and Article 5 (only textile fibre names listed in Annex I are used to describe fibre composition on labels and markings). GOV.UK says manufacturers and retailers are responsible for complying, and that if you place textile products from the EU on the UK market you should check that the labels are present and accurate.

The EU fibre-name list itself, including why a trade name is not a composition, is the separate page EU textile fibre labels and Annex I names. This page does not repeat that catalogue.

Distance selling: visible before purchase

Article 16(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on legislation.gov.uk says that, when a textile product is made available on the market, the fibre-composition descriptions in Articles 5, 7, 8, and 9 shall be indicated in catalogues and trade literature, on packaging, labels, and markings so that they are easily legible, visible, and clear. It then says: “This information shall be clearly visible to the consumer before the purchase, including in cases where the purchase is made by electronic means.” That is the distance-selling rule those sources state. Confirm the live text, including UK amendments on that legislation.gov.uk page, before you rely on a product-page line.

Northern Ireland

The GOV.UK textile labelling page says it applies to England, Scotland, and Wales. It does not set out a separate Northern Ireland labelling rule. SI 2012/1102 names the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland as an enforcement authority for Northern Ireland, alongside local weights and measures authorities in Great Britain. Whether a garment sold in Northern Ireland follows the Great Britain text, EU rules, or both is not settled by those two statements alone. Confirm the live instruments and GOV.UK guidance before you treat Northern Ireland as identical to Great Britain.

Care labels

Neither the GOV.UK textile labelling page nor the fibre-composition provisions cited here state a duty to show care symbols, and they do not say care labels are voluntary. Recital 26 of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011, on the legislation.gov.uk text, says other aspects of textile labelling should be examined and invites a report on possible new labelling requirements. It does not itself require or waive a care label. Whether a care label is required for a given product is outside the pages cited here.

Checklist

What this page is not

Related pages

Not legal advice. Confirm SI 2012/1102, Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 as published on legislation.gov.uk, and the GOV.UK textile labelling page, including the Northern Ireland position, before you treat a clothing label as in or out of scope. The app stores composition text you enter.