Newsflash | UK | Brexit update | Softlines and Leather

Brexit update

Over the last year, EU and UK leaders negotiated, agreed and set a Brexit departure date of January 31, 2020. Following that, an implementation period runs until the 31 December 2020 while the EU and UK negotiate arrangements.

The following summarises the implications on consumer product testing as a result of Brexit:

Company ID on Labels and Origin Labelling.

If the UK leave the EU without a trade deal UK-based companies that import manufactured goods from the EU or European Economic Area will face changes in terms of how these imported goods must be labelled.

Post-Brexit, if manufactured goods are imported into the UK from the EU or EEA and are to be placed on the market, the status of the company facilitating the import will change from a ‘distributor’ as it would have been previously, to an ‘importer’.

This would mean that:

You would need to label the goods with your company’s details, including your company’s name and contact address. It would be mandatory that this label would be on the garment.
This could mean that you would also have to include Country of Origin labelling on the garment. If your company address is, for example, London, UK but your garment is made in Portugal you would have to include a Country of Origin label as well as your company address.

There will be an 18-month transition period allowing importers to provide their company and Country of Origin details on accompanying documentation rather than on the product itself.

Fibre Content

There will be no change to the requirements to have full fibre content information on a garment. When selling to the EU, information will need to be translated into relevant languages.

Care Labelling

There will be no change to care labelling requirements. There is no requirement to include care information but if you do not include care information you would be responsible to the consumer for any damage caused to the garment resulting from a reasonable cleaning process.

For more information on textile labelling post-Brexit, please click here to visit the GOV.UK website.