Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council regarding possible new labelling requirements of textile products and on a study on allergenic substances in textile products

Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling and marking of fibre composition of textile products (the “Textile Regulation”) is the sole sector-specific EU legislation applicable to textile products. It lays down conditions and rules for the labelling and marking of textile products, and rules on textile fibre names. It applies to all products containing at least 80% by weight of textile fibres, including raw, semi-worked, worked, semi-manufactured, semi-made or made-up products.

Article 24 of the Textile Regulation requires the European Commission to submit to the European Parliament and to the Council by 30 September 2013, a report accompanied, where appropriate, by legislative proposals, ‘regarding possible new labelling requirements to be introduced at Union level with a view to providing consumers with accurate, relevant, intelligible and comparable information on the characteristics of textile products’.

The issues examined include, inter alia, an origin labelling scheme, a harmonised care labelling system, a Union-wide uniform size labelling system, an indication of allergenic substances, electronic labelling and other new technologies, language-independent symbols or codes for the identification of textile fibres. As Article 12 of the Textile Regulation introduces the requirement to label textile products containing non-textile parts of animal origin, the possible labelling or marking of leather products was also examined.

Moreover, the Commission was also required, by Article 25 of the Regulation, to carry out a study to evaluate whether there is a causal link between allergic reactions and chemical substances or mixtures used in textile products, and where appropriate, submit legislative proposals.

This report has been established on the basis of the outcome of the studies carried out on the European Commission’s behalf. These studies analysed different systems of labelling for textiles and leather products, as well as the causal link between allergies and chemical substances in finished textile products. The results of these studies have been extensively discussed with experts from the Member States, industry and other stakeholders, notably via the Expert Group on Textiles Names and Labelling. The study on labelling of textile products took into account the outcome of a study carried out on behalf of the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Internal Policies in 2010.

The present report takes into account existing relevant European and international standards and also covers Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) concerns. It includes an overview of the textiles and clothing industry, a summary review of possible new labelling requirements and the main findings of the study on chemical substances, and presents conclusions.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)656: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:656:FIN

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