Quick answer: To sell clothing in Germany or the EU, your label needs the fiber composition using only Annex I names (Regulation 1007/2011), in the language of the country of sale, percentages summing to 100%, plus manufacturer details and an EU responsible person under the GPSR.
| Requirement | Legal basis | Typical mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Fiber names from Annex I only | Reg. (EU) 1007/2011, Art. 5 + Annex I | "Acryl" instead of "Polyacryl"; "bamboo" instead of viscose |
| Percentages sum to 100%, descending | Reg. 1007/2011, Art. 9 | "60% cotton, 30% polyester" |
| Purity terms only for single-fiber products | Reg. 1007/2011, Art. 7 | "100% cotton" on a blend with elastane |
| Language of the country of sale | Reg. 1007/2011, Art. 16(3) | English-only label sold into Germany |
| Animal-parts sentence | Reg. 1007/2011, Art. 12 | Leather patch without the mandatory note |
| Manufacturer name, postal address, email/URL | GPSR (EU) 2023/988, Art. 9 | Label designed before Dec 2024, no address block |
| EU responsible person for non-EU manufacturers | GPSR, Art. 16 | US/UK brand with nobody named in the EU |
| Product identification (style/batch number) | GPSR, Art. 9(5) | No traceable number anywhere |
| Care symbols: five, in ISO order (voluntary) | ISO 3758 | Wool with a 60 °C wash symbol |
Selling clothing into Germany or the EU means your care label is a legal document, not a design element. This guide covers what must be on it, the mistakes that actually get enforced, and how to check your label before a competitor does. It is written for small brands and marketplace sellers; it is not legal advice.
The two laws that govern your label
Two EU regulations do most of the work:
Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 is the Textile Regulation. It governs fiber names, percentages, and the language they must appear in. It has applied unchanged for over a decade, and it is the basis for most label-related enforcement in Germany.
Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (GPSR) is the General Product Safety Regulation. Since December 13, 2024, it requires manufacturer contact details and a traceable product identification on consumer products, textiles included. This is the newest requirement and currently the most commonly missed one.
On top of that, Germany adds one practical layer: labeling must be in German for products sold there (Art. 16(3) of the Textile Regulation: the language of the member state where the product is made available). Multilingual labels are fine. A label that is only in English is not.
Fiber composition: only Annex I names count
The single most enforced rule is deceptively simple: you may only use the fiber names listed in Annex I of Regulation 1007/2011. There are 49 of them. Everything else is not permitted: trade names, common-sense names, translations that sound right.
The classic examples from real German court decisions:
- "Acryl" is not a permitted name. The correct German Annex I name is "Polyacryl". This exact mistake was ruled anti-competitive by the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG München, 6 U 2046/16, 2016). It is probably the most common fiber mistake on German-market labels: it sounds right, and it is wrong.
- "Merinowolle" is not a permitted name. Merino is a breed, not an Annex I fiber. The permitted name is "Wolle" (wool). The Hamm Higher Regional Court held "Merinowolle" as a fiber declaration to be impermissible and enforceable (OLG Hamm, 4 U 18/18, 2018). You can market the merino quality elsewhere on the product, just not in the fiber line.
- Brand names are not fiber names. "Lycra" and "Spandex" are not permitted on EU labels; the Annex I name is "Elasthan" (German) / "elastane" (English). The same logic applies to "Tencel" (use "Lyocell") and similar trademarks.
- "Bamboo" is not an Annex I name. Almost all "bamboo" textiles are chemically processed viscose and must be declared as such. This one is common enough that it gets its own article.
Missing labeling entirely is also enforceable: the Celle Higher Regional Court treated absent labeling information as a competition violation as far back as 2004 (OLG Celle, 13 U 184/03).
Percentages: three mechanical rules
- They must add up to 100%. A label that reads "60% cotton, 30% polyester" is incomplete.
- They must be sorted in descending order by weight (Art. 9).
- Purity terms are protected. "100%", "pure" ("rein"), and similar terms are only permitted when the product truly consists of a single fiber (Art. 7). "100% cotton" on a garment with 5% elastane is a violation, not a rounding choice.
One legitimate escape hatch: fibers may be grouped as "other fibers" ("sonstige Fasern"), but only up to 15% of the total weight in aggregate (Art. 9).
Animal parts need a sentence
If your product contains non-textile parts of animal origin (a leather patch, horn buttons, down filling), the label or packaging must carry the sentence "Enthält nichttextile Teile tierischen Ursprungs" ("contains non-textile parts of animal origin", Art. 12). This applies even when the part is obvious.
GPSR: the address block (mandatory since December 2024)
The GPSR is not a textile law. It applies to nearly all consumer products, but it changed what a compliant garment label (or its packaging/insert) looks like. Required:
- Manufacturer name, postal address, and an electronic address (email or URL), per Art. 9. On the product, its packaging, or an accompanying document.
- If the manufacturer is outside the EU: a responsible person established in the EU, with contact details, per Art. 16. For most small brands importing from Asia, this is the importer or a paid authorized-representative service. Without a named EU person, the product may not be placed on the EU market.
- A product identification: type, batch, or model number (Art. 9(5)). A style number on the label satisfies this.
In practice, the most common finding on labels we check is simply: no address block at all. The label was designed before December 2024 and never updated. Note that the requirements also affect stock that is still being offered for sale; "we printed these labels in 2023" is not an exemption strategy.
Language: German for Germany, and what "multilingual" means
Art. 16(3) requires labeling in the official language of the country of sale, and Germany enforces this. Practical consequences:
- A label with only "cotton" does not satisfy the German market; it needs "Baumwolle".
- Multilingual labels are explicitly allowed. "Baumwolle / cotton / coton" on one label is fine, and it is the standard solution for brands selling across borders.
- Selling into France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, or Poland? Each of those countries requires its fiber names in its language, from the same Annex I table (it exists in every official EU language). "Bawełna" for Poland, "cotone" for Italy, and so on.
An oddity worth knowing: "nylon" is a permitted name in the English Annex I version but not in the German one. German labels need "Polyamid". Names do not transfer between language versions.
Care symbols: voluntary in the EU, but check the plausibility
Care labeling is not mandatory under EU law. It is, however, the retail standard (ISO 3758: five symbols in fixed order, namely wash, bleach, dry, iron, professional care), and if you do print care instructions, they should match the fiber. Two combinations we flag constantly:
- Wool with a 60 °C wash symbol. Wool above 30 °C is a returns classic; a care label that invites machine-washing wool hot is a plausibility failure even before it is a legal one.
- Elastane with a three-dot iron. High ironing heat destroys elastane; one dot is the ceiling.
If you print nothing, you carry the risk for care damage disputes alone. If you print something wrong, you have documented bad advice. Either way, the care row deserves the same attention as the fiber line.
Why enforcement in Germany is different: the Abmahnung
Germany enforces competition law partly through private cease-and-desist letters (Abmahnung): a competitor or an association sends a formal warning, you sign a cease-and-desist declaration with a contractual penalty, and you pay the opposing legal fees. Textile labeling is one of the frequently cited triggers in fashion e-commerce, because violations are objective and visible on every product page.
Published orders of magnitude: dispute values of €10,000–50,000 and opposing legal fees around €1,000 per letter, plus your own defense costs, plus possible relabeling of stock. The outcome always depends on the individual case and the court. But the asymmetry is the point: the mistakes are cheap to fix and expensive to defend.
A 60-second self-check
Before your next production run, check your label against this list:
- Every fiber name appears in Annex I, in German (plus any other languages you sell in)
- Percentages sum to 100% and descend
- No "100%"/"pure" wording unless it is a single-fiber product
- Animal parts sentence, if applicable
- Manufacturer name + postal address + email or URL
- EU responsible person named, if the manufacturer is outside the EU
- Style/batch number present
- Care symbols complete (five, in ISO order) and plausible for the fibers
If you want the same check done automatically: we built a free tool that reads your label from a photo and checks it against 48 rules for Germany/EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland, including the Annex I alias knowledge above. Upload a photo, get the result in under a minute: usecarelabel.com. The check is free; every number in it has a legal source.
(Not legal advice. Requirements summarized as of 2026; the individual case always decides.)