Study on Labelling of Textile Products

The debate on textile labelling was spurred by a recent proposal for a Regulation on textile names and related labelling of textile products. This study investigates whether other textile labelling requirements could be brought up in EU legislation, including care instructions, chemical substances in textiles, electronic labelling (RFID), multi-lingual, country of origin, ecological, and size labelling. Generally, the consumer organisations do not follow the area of textile labelling very closely, with the exception of chemical labelling, because improper textile labelling does, in most cases, not present a risk to consumers’ health. However, consumer organisations generally favour harmonised, mandatory systems in order to ensure that consumers meet the same information across the EU. Industry organisations are generally in favour of voluntary systems, primarily due to the costs associated with mandatory system(s). For the member states, any mandatory labelling system would increase requirements for market surveillance.