It's time to change the EU Regulation on textile labels
Labelling, sustainability claims, and more
The legally mandatory information on the labels on textile products for sale in EU countries is defined by a European regulation adopted on September 27th 2011 (Textile Labelling Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011).
12 years after the adoption the time has come for a revision of the regulation which, let's remember it, affects not only clothing but also furnishing fabrics and mattress coverings. The requests and sensitiveness of the market have changed radically, think of the importance that information on the environmental impact has today, in general on the traceability of materials, or the importance of correctly labelling second-hand garments.
The EU regulatory framework for the textile sector has changed as well, just as radically as the market environment, considering that the year 2011 when the regulation was adopted belongs to the pre-REACH age! By the way, the Reach regulation also is undergoing a major revision. Important regulatory changes are under discussion today, triggered by the document on the European strategy for sustainable and circular textiles. Just think of the proposed regulations on eco-design, against greenwashing, the application of the EPR directive, etc.
These are all factors that require a decidedly more sophisticated information framework than that provided for by the old regulation, both in terms of content and in terms of the relevant information means and tools.
Then there are other reasons that fuel the need to intervene.
The first is that in addition to the aforementioned environmental aspects, the old regulation operates in a very limited scope and excludes from its field of application non-negligible domains such as information on the size (which is not regulated), information on maintenance (the use of maintenance symbols today refers to the technical standard ISO/3758 (Textiles — Care Labelling Code Using Symbols) rather than to European regulation or guidelines), the problem of the use of the term "leather" in accessories and clothing, which each country has regulated independently and, finally, the age-old theme of the “made-in”.
The second is that some of the provisions of the regulation have proven to be ineffective, for example, the essentially failed objective of making the procedures for the recognition of new fibers and their names easier, quicker and harmonized throughout Europe as well as less expensive or to define the standards for the analysis of the fiber composition.
Beyond the definition of information content, the great issue of the means and tools to channeling the information to the consumer opens up. Since 2011, the use of digital labels, from QR-codes to RFIDl or NFC tags, readable by smartphones, has made great progress and offers enormous information potential in addition to the traditional label or tag. It is now time to give some form of regulation or harmonization guidelines to it.
The European Commission has begun to take the first steps for a revision intervention. A study on the impact of the old regulation and an in-depth evaluation of possible improvements has been launched.
It is a perspective that involves the entire supply chain; to collect the information that will go on the labels, the involvement and collaboration of all the players is necessary, from the producers of raw materials to the garment makers.
