Clothing label & care-label requirements for the EU, UK, US & Canada

Labels are small, but they’re a legal requirement — and getting them wrong can hold goods at the border or force costly re-labelling. Every market has its own rules. Here’s what your knit garments need, market by market, plus a pre-shipment checklist.

European Union

The EU’s Textile Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 makes fibre composition mandatory. List every constituent fibre by name and percentage by weight, in descending order (Art. 9). Fibre names must come from the regulation’s official Annex I list — and the label must be in the official language(s) of the member state where the garment is sold (Art. 16(3)), which is why the same style shipped to France and Germany needs different labels.

Three rules that decide how your tee gets described:

• “100%”, “pure” or “all” may only be used if the product is exclusively that one fibre (Art. 7) — though up to 2% technically-unavoidable stray fibre is tolerated, or 5% for carded products.
• A fibre under 5% of total weight — or several fibres together under 15% — may be shown as “other fibres” (Art. 9(2)).
• Labels must be durable, easily legible, visible and securely attached (Art. 14).

Two things the regulation does not cover, which surprise most buyers. Care symbols aren’t EU law — 1007/2011 says nothing about washing instructions; the familiar symbols are the separate, voluntary ISO/GINETEX system. Retailers still expect them, so include them. And see the origin section below — that one matters more.

United Kingdom

The UK retained the EU textile-labelling approach post-Brexit: fibre composition is mandatory, with care labelling expected. In practice, an EU-compliant label is usually accepted for the UK — but verify against current UK guidance for your product.

United States

The US demands the most on the label, and unlike the EU it does require origin. Under the FTC Textile and Wool Acts and the Care Labeling Rule (16 CFR 423), a garment needs: fibre content, country of origin (“Made in Nepal”), an identity (company name or RN number), and — unlike Canada — care instructions are mandatory.

Here’s the part that catches overseas factories out: RN numbers are issued only to businesses residing in the United States (16 CFR 303.20(a)). A Nepali factory cannot obtain one. That’s fine — you don’t need one. The FTC accepts the foreign manufacturer’s own business name on the label as a valid standalone identity, or you can use the RN or name of the US importer, distributor, or retailer handling the goods. Don’t let anyone tell you the order is blocked because you lack an RN.

On placement, US Customs requires garments covering the upper torso — shirts, sweatshirts, sweaters — to be marked with the country of origin at the inside centre of the neck, midway between the shoulder seams. And if you want a tagless look: CBP has accepted a screen-printed neck marking directly on knit fabric as permanent and conspicuous, so heat-transfer neck prints are a legitimate alternative to a sewn label.

Canada

Canada has the most specific rules of the four, and two of them regularly catch importers out. You must show the fibre content — the generic fibre name and its percentage for every fibre making up 5% or more of the product’s total fibre mass — and a dealer identity.

The first trap is language. The fibre content, and anything directly related to it, must appear in both English and French — that includes qualifying terms like “reclaimed” or “reprocessed” and section names like “yoke” or “skirt”. Helpfully, the dealer identity and the country of origin do not have to be bilingual.

The second is care labelling. Most importers assume it’s mandatory — it isn’t. Care labelling in Canada is a voluntary program, not a legal requirement. You should still include care symbols because retailers and customers expect them, but you won’t be stopped at the border for omitting them.

For dealer identity you can print your company name and mailing address, or use a CA Identification Number — a five-digit number prefixed with “CA” (for example, CA00000) issued by the Competition Bureau. Many brands use the CA number simply to keep a full address off the label.

What “country of origin” means for a Nepal-made garment

This is the single most misunderstood point in garment labelling, so it’s worth being precise. There are two different kinds of “origin” and they answer different questions.

Customs origin is a trade-policy concept. Under the EU’s Union Customs Code it decides your duty rate, quota treatment, and what the importer declares and proves to customs. For a finished garment, the origin-conferring operation is the “complete making-up” — the cutting and sewing. That’s the origin that appears on your customs declaration and Certificate of Origin, and it’s what carries your LDC duty-free claim into the EU, UK, and Canada.

Label origin is a consumer-information concept — the “Made in Nepal” printed on the garment. And here’s the surprise: the EU does not require it. Regulation 1007/2011 covers fibre composition only. The EU tried twice to mandate origin marking on imported goods — a 2005 proposal withdrawn in 2013, and an Article 7 in a 2013 product-safety proposal withdrawn in 2020 — and neither was ever adopted. The US, by contrast, does require it.

So: you always need documented origin for customs, everywhere. You need it on the label for the US. In the EU and UK it’s voluntary — but the moment you print it, it becomes a product characteristic under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC, Art. 6(1)(b) names “geographical or commercial origin”), so it must be truthful. Claiming origin you can’t support is the real risk, not omitting it.

One market-specific note: France goes further under its AGEC law, requiring larger sellers to disclose the country of each of three stages — knitting/weaving, dyeing/printing, and assembly — via an online product sheet rather than the garment label. If you sell into France at scale, ask us and we’ll give you those three countries for your style.

Pre-shipment labelling checklist

The single most useful thing to keep straight is what is legally required versus what is merely expected. They are not the same, and assuming they are is what leads to over-engineered labels — or held shipments.

Care symbols are legally required only in the US — but include them everywhere anyway, because retailers and customers expect them and a returned garment costs more than a label. And remember that “not required on the label” never means “not required for customs”: your Certificate of Origin and declaration always need it.

• Fibre composition — every fibre named and percentaged, in the destination’s language(s).
• Bilingual English/French fibre content for Canada — dealer identity and origin need not be.
• Identity — your business name, or an RN (US firms only) / CA number (Canada).
• Origin — mandatory on US labels, at the inside centre-back neck; documented for customs everywhere.
• Care symbols — mandatory US, expected everywhere else.
• Labels durable, legible, and securely attached — and not folded so the origin hides on the reverse.

We handle labelling and care/origin marking in-house as part of finishing, so your garments arrive market-ready to your spec. See our compliance posture, and always confirm the exact current rule for your market before bulk. Tell us your destination and we’ll set the labels up correctly.