What must be on a clothing label by law: US, UK and EU compared (2026)

What must be on a clothing label by law depends on where the garment is sold. In the United States, the label must show fibre content, country of origin and the name or RN of a responsible business, and a separate federal rule adds a permanent care label. In Great Britain and the European Union, textile law requires only the fibre composition, in English for GB and in the local language for each EU country, and product safety law adds a name, an address and a batch or product reference. Care and origin labels are not required by GB or EU-wide law, and ordinary clothing needs no UKCA or CE mark.

The legal minimum at a glance

Great Britain here means England, Scotland and Wales; Northern Ireland applies the EU product safety regulation, so treat it separately.

Anything outside the table is voluntary, but not unregulated. GOV.UK says you need not show particular information on every product, yet whatever you show must be accurate and must not mislead, including about what the product is made of and where it was made.

United States: fibre, origin and identity, plus a care label

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the Textile Act and its rules at 16 CFR Part 303, which require three disclosures on most clothing: fibre content, country of origin, and the identity of the manufacturer or another business handling the product. Care instructions come from a separate FTC rule, 16 CFR Part 423, and go on a permanent label; our care label symbols guide covers that rule.

• Fibre content. Generic names and percentages by weight, largest first. A fibre under 5% goes into a combined "other" figure unless it has a real function, such as elastane for stretch; wool is always named. Percentages carry a 3% tolerance, but a single-fibre claim such as "100% cotton" gets none.
• Trims. Collars, cuffs, waistbands and similar trim are left out, as is elastic up to 20% and decoration up to 15% of the surface area, with a phrase such as "exclusive of decoration".
• Country of origin. The country where the garment was processed or manufactured, decided under US Customs rules and named in English. "Made in" is optional unless it is needed to avoid confusion.
• Identity. The full name the company trades under, as on its invoices, or its RN. A brand name counts only if it is also the trading name.

On a garment with a neck, the origin goes on the front of a label at the inside centre of the neck, and nothing may cover it. Fibre content and identity can go on the back of that label, if it is attached at one end only, or on another easy-to-find label, such as one in a side seam. All required wording must be in English. The FTC warns that imported goods with faulty labels can be held up by Customs, so fix the labels before the goods leave Bangladesh. Our US market guide covers duty and entry paperwork.

The RN number: optional, and only for US businesses

An RN, or Registered Identification Number, is issued by the FTC so that a business can print a short number instead of its full name. Anyone can look up the holder in the FTC's RN database.

• It is optional. The FTC states that an RN is not required to do business in the United States. The label needs the company name or the RN.
• Only US businesses can get one. The FTC says RNs are not issued to businesses outside the US.
• Imported goods have other options. The label may name the foreign manufacturer or distributor, or give the name or RN of the importer, the wholesaler, or a retailer that has agreed to it.

A claim still repeated on some sourcing and labelling sites is that every garment sold in the US must carry an RN. The FTC's guidance says the opposite. A UK or EU brand cannot hold an RN, but it can be named in full as the foreign distributor, or use the name or RN of its US importer; confirm the choice with your customs broker.

Great Britain: fibre content in English

In England, Scotland and Wales the rule is the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1102), in force since 8 May 2012. They enforce Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 as kept in UK law after Brexit. A breach is an offence, enforced by local weights and measures authorities, better known as Trading Standards, with a due diligence defence for a business that took all reasonable precautions.

GOV.UK lists one labelling requirement: the fibre content, including any fur and other animal parts, shown for each part where the parts differ, such as a shell and a lining. It names manufacturers and retailers as responsible for compliance.

The GB version of Article 16 requires the composition in English, and requires it to be clearly visible to the consumer before purchase, including online, so the fibre line belongs on your product page as well as on the garment. The approved names, components and tolerances come from the same regulation and are explained in the EU section below. Our UK market guide covers duty and import paperwork.

European Union: fibre composition in each country's language

Across the EU the rule is Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011. Its first article covers fibre names, the labelling of fibre composition, the marking of non-textile parts of animal origin and the analysis of fibre blends. It applies to textile products and to products that are at least 80% textile fibre by weight.

• Who is responsible. The manufacturer or, where the manufacturer is not established in the EU, as with a factory in Bangladesh, the importer. A distributor that sells under its own name or trade mark, or attaches or changes the label, counts as the manufacturer (Article 15).
• Every fibre, largest first. Names from Annex I with percentages by weight. One fibre of up to 5%, or several totalling up to 15%, may be grouped as "other fibres" only where they cannot easily be stated at manufacture (Article 9).
• "100%", "pure" and "all". Only for a single fibre, allowing up to 2% of technically unavoidable stray fibre, or 5% after carding (Article 7).
• Components. Each component with a different fibre content is labelled, except parts that are not main linings and weigh under 30% of the product (Article 11). Decorative fibres up to 7% and antistatic fibres up to 2% can be left out (Article 10).
• Tolerance. 3% between the stated composition and a laboratory analysis (Article 20).
• Form and language. Durable, easily legible, visible, accessible and securely attached (Article 14), in the official language or languages of each country of sale, unless that country provides otherwise (Article 16).

The European Commission says these rules stop at fibre composition, and that this has let EU countries add their own, differing requirements in other labelling areas. So check the national rules of each country you sell in. Our EU market guide covers duty and import steps.

A revision is planned but not in force. The Commission intended to propose one, covering physical and digital labels, by the second quarter of 2026. The European Parliament's Legislative Train, updated 1 August 2026, lists the file as blocked, with the Commission as the blocking institution. Until a new text applies, Regulation 1007/2011 remains the law.

Name, address and batch: the product safety layer

Product safety law adds traceability details that many label checklists leave out.

• Great Britain. Regulation 7 of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 expects the producer, unless it is not reasonable, to show its name and address and the product reference or batch on the product or its packaging. legislation.gov.uk lists no outstanding changes to regulation 7 as of 23 September 2026.
• European Union. The General Product Safety Regulation, (EU) 2023/988, applies from 13 December 2024. The UK's Office for Product Safety and Standards summarises its requirements, on the product or an accompanying document: a type, batch or serial number, and the manufacturer's name, registered trade name or trade mark with its postal and electronic address. A responsible economic operator, which can be the manufacturer, importer, authorised representative or a fulfilment service provider, must be established in the EU. The regulation also applies in Northern Ireland.
• United States. The identity disclosure described above does this job.

One practical approach is a composition and care label that also carries your company name, address and a style or batch code, repeated on the swing tag if space is short. Settle who your EU responsible operator is before the first shipment.

What the law does not require

• A care label in GB or under EU law. Both sets of rules cover fibre composition and ask for no care instructions, in words or in symbols, so the idea that the GB regulations demand care wording but not symbols is wrong. A care label still helps customers avoid ruining the garment; the US is where it is law.
• An origin label in GB or under EU law. A claim still found on some UK labelling pages says every garment sold in the UK must name its country of manufacture. GOV.UK says no particular information is required on every product, only that statements about where it was made must not mislead.
• An RN. Optional in the US, and unavailable outside it.
• A UKCA or CE mark. GOV.UK says a conformity marking is only necessary where sector-specific regulations require one. The regimes it lists cover goods such as personal protective equipment, toys and machinery, not ordinary clothing, and where a mark is needed GB still recognises CE alongside UKCA. Shipping guides telling clothing exporters to add a CE mark and then a UKCA mark are describing rules for other products.
• Fibre, care and origin everywhere. Some label guides call all three compulsory on textiles worldwide. Of these three markets, only the US requires all of them.

Special cases: nightwear, children's clothing, animal parts and socks

UK nightwear. Schedule 2 of the Nightwear (Safety) Regulations 1985, as published on legislation.gov.uk, sets the label wording for pyjamas, babies' garments and cotton terry towelling bath robes sold as children's nightwear, and for adults' nightwear:

• Fabric that cannot meet the flammability performance requirements after washing: KEEP AWAY FROM FIRE in red letters.
• Fabric that meets them: LOW FLAMMABILITY TO BS 5722 in black letters, the red warning, or both.
• Medium letters of 10 point in upper case, legible and durable, on a background of a sufficiently different colour, on a durable label.
• Position: inside the neck, next to the size label, or on the size label directly under the size.

The schedule names no typeface and does not ask for bold type, whatever some guides say. For other children's nightwear, ask your testing laboratory which flammability requirements apply.

US children's clothing. Children's clothing sold in the US carries further duties under consumer product safety law, tracking labels among them; our CPSIA guide sets them out with sources.

Leather and fur. In the EU, a textile product with non-textile parts of animal origin must say "Contains non-textile parts of animal origin" (Article 12), and GOV.UK brings fur and other animal parts into the GB label too. A real leather patch on a pair of jeans is one example. The US rule differs: non-fibre parts such as leather patches, buttons and zips are left out of the fibre disclosure.

Socks and multipacks for the US. Most socks must show the country of origin in English on the front of the package or label, next to the size. For other packs, such as t-shirts, the required information goes on each item and on the package, unless the package is transparent and the labels can be read through it.

Protective workwear. Garments sold as personal protective equipment fall under the PPE regulations, one of the regimes where a UKCA or CE mark does apply.

Getting the label right on an order from Bangladesh

The legal wording is your decision as the brand or importer: the FTC's rules bind anyone who imports, sells or advertises covered clothing, and the EU regulation makes the importer responsible where the maker is outside the EU. A workable sequence:

1. Fix the markets first. A label for the US and several EU countries needs the US origin placement and every EU language concerned.
2. Write the exact text into the tech pack. Fibre line, origin, company name or RN, address, style or batch code, care, and the position of each label. Our guide to writing a tech pack shows where this goes.
3. Use fibre names that work everywhere. Cotton, polyester, elastane, polyamide (or nylon) and viscose are all in the EU list, and the FTC accepts the ISO names elastane, polyamide and viscose alongside its own generic names, so the same fibre names work in all three markets, translated where an EU language requires it.
4. Take the percentages from the bulk fabric. The 3% tolerance allows for unintended variation in manufacturing, not for estimates. If the blend matters to your claim, ask for a fibre composition test on the bulk fabric.
5. Approve labels like any other trim. Through us, labels are sourced with the other trims and you approve them on the sample before production. Add label content and position to your inspection checklist so they are checked with everything else.
6. Get sign-off where you sell. Confirm the wording with your lawyer, your US customs broker or your local Trading Standards service, which GOV.UK suggests for labelling questions.

What to do next

If you are planning a private label range, our private label clothing service covers labels, tags and packaging on garments made in audited partner factories, and our private label guide explains what you own. We name the factory making your order in writing before production, with its address, certificates and audit reports. Our own orders start at 500 pieces per style and colour, and some categories start higher, such as 1,000 for t-shirts. Send your markets, styles and label text through the quote request form, and a founder replies within one working day.