Product Labeling Requirements in the UK: A Guide for Online Sellers

Who it is for

UK stores selling physical products

Time needed

Half a day per product type to check

What you need

Supplier documents and your product templates

Picture a candle sold from a Shopify store in Manchester. It needs a safe design, a warning about naked flames, a name and address on the packaging and a batch number. If it ships to Dublin, the product page also needs the manufacturer's details, a product identifier and the name of someone in the EU who answers to regulators. Most of that applies to any physical product, and most small stores have only part of it in place.

This guide covers product labeling requirements in the UK for online sellers: who counts as the producer, what the general rules require, the extra rules for common product types and how to show it all in Shopify. Rules come from GOV.UK, Business Companion and the EU's legal summaries, as checked on 7 November 2026.

Step 1: Work out whether you're the producer

Your duties depend on your role. Under the GB guidance on the General Product Safety Regulations 2005, a producer includes:

• A manufacturer based in Great Britain.
• A UK-based importer that brings a product in from outside the UK.
• Anyone who presents themselves as the manufacturer by putting their name, trademark or other distinctive mark on the product.
• Where the manufacturer is outside the UK with no UK representative, the UK business that places the product on the market.

That last point catches a lot of Shopify stores. If you buy white-label products from overseas and sell them under your brand, or import directly from a factory, you are very likely the producer, with the full set of duties. A distributor has lighter duties: don't supply products you know or should know are dangerous, pass on risk information and cooperate with enforcement authorities.

Step 2: Meet the general safety duties

Every consumer product must be safe in normal or reasonably foreseeable use. As the producer, you must also:

1. Give consumers the information they need to assess risks that aren't obvious, with warnings where needed. A warning doesn't excuse an unsafe design.
2. Mark the product or its packaging with the producer's name and address and the product reference or batch, where it's reasonable to do so.
3. Sample test marketed products and investigate complaints, keeping a register of safety complaints where needed.
4. Notify an enforcement authority in writing if you find a product is unsafe, with the action you've taken. In Great Britain, that's normally your local Trading Standards.
5. Be ready to recall. The government points businesses to the BSI Code of Practice on corrective actions and recalls.

Step 3: Check conformity marking

Many product types, such as toys and electrical goods, need a conformity marking. In Great Britain you can use either the UKCA or the CE marking for 21 product regulations, after the government decided to keep recognizing CE marking. The exceptions with separate arrangements include medical devices, construction products, marine equipment, rail products, cableways, transportable pressure equipment and unmanned aircraft systems.

Not all products need a conformity marking at all. If your supplier says something "has CE", ask for the declaration of conformity, which names the regulations it was assessed against.

Step 4: Add the rules for your product type

Textiles

Products made from more than one fiber must show each fiber with its percentage, such as "cotton 80%, polyester 15%, nylon 5%", and the label must be in English. Products with non-textile parts of animal origin, such as a leather trim, must say "contains non-textile parts of animal origin". When a customer can order from the description alone, as on a product page, the fiber content must appear in that description too. The regulations treat websites as advertisements for this purpose.

Cosmetics

Every cosmetic sold in Great Britain needs a Responsible Person with a UK address, not a PO box or mail-forwarding address. Before the product goes on sale, its safety must be assessed by a qualified safety assessor, and the Responsible Person must notify OPSS through the Submit Cosmetic Product Notifications service. They also keep a Product Information File in English. The label must show the Responsible Person's name and address, the country of origin if imported, the weight or volume, the use-by date, precautions, a batch number, the product's function and the ingredients.

Food

Food labels must be clear and not misleading, with the name of the food, an ingredients list and allergen information as a minimum. For online sales, Business Companion says much of the information on the label has to be duplicated in your online description. A photo of the back of the pack isn't a reliable substitute, because it can't be read by every customer or kept up to date.

Step 5: If you sell to the EU or Northern Ireland

The EU General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 has applied since 13 December 2024. In Northern Ireland it replaced the 2005 regulations on that date. For a GB store shipping to EU customers, it means:

• An EU responsible person. Each product needs a responsible economic operator in the EU: an EU manufacturer, importer, authorized representative or fulfillment service provider. Shopify says it doesn't offer this service itself.
• Information in your listings. Shopify's summary of the rules lists an identifying element, such as a picture, type, batch or serial number, the manufacturer's name, trade name or trademark, postal and electronic address, and the EU responsible person's details if the manufacturer is outside the EU.
• Warnings in the local language. Instructions and safety information must be in the language of each EU country where the product is sold.
• Accidents and recalls. Manufacturers must notify consumers and authorities through the EU's Safety Business Gateway if a product is dangerous, and keep a register of complaints.

Step 6: Show it all in Shopify

The legal information belongs in structured fields, not buried in a description you have to edit product by product. This is how I set it up:

1. Add warnings as Disclosures. Go to Products, open a product and, in the Product metafields section, click the plus icon next to Disclosures. Pick a standard disclosure or click Add new entry to write your own, then save.
2. Manage disclosures in one place. Each entry has a title, content, symbol, jurisdictions and display preferences, and you can edit them under Content > Metaobjects. A change applies to every product that uses it, which is ideal when a warning's wording changes.
3. Show them in the cart too. In the disclosure's Display preferences, select Cart for warnings customers must see before they buy.
4. Add the block to your theme. On a Horizon theme, add the Disclosures block to the Product information section of the product template. On an Online Store 2.0 theme like Dawn, add the Disclosures section. Third-party themes may need a developer.
5. Create metafields for the rest. Open a product and, in the Metafields section, click Add definition for fields such as manufacturer, EU responsible person, fiber content and batch or model number. Then connect them to the product template in the theme editor.
6. Fill them in bulk. Use the bulk editor or a product CSV for large catalogs, and make the fields part of your checklist for adding new products.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the supplier is responsible. If you import or put your brand on it, the duties are yours.
• Fiber content on the label but not the product page. Both are needed when customers order from the listing.
• Selling cosmetics before notifying OPSS, or with an EU-only Responsible Person.
• A warning image with no text, which screen readers and search can't read. Use a disclosure with real text.
• Shipping to the EU with no EU responsible person named in the listing.
• Accepting "CE" without paperwork. Ask for the declaration of conformity.

Product safety checklist

• I know whether I'm the producer or a distributor for each product line.
• Every product or its packaging shows the producer's name and address and a batch or type reference.
• Products that need UKCA or CE marking have it, with a declaration of conformity on file.
• Textile listings show fiber content, cosmetics are notified with a UK Responsible Person, and food listings repeat the label information.
• Warnings are set up as Disclosures and appear on the product page and, where needed, in the cart.
• For EU sales, listings include the manufacturer, a product identifier and the EU responsible person.
• I keep a complaints log and know how I would run a recall.

Next steps

Pick your best-selling product and check it against the checklist, packaging and product page side by side. Then fix the template once with metafields and disclosures, rather than editing every listing by hand. If you sell skincare, my page on Shopify for skincare and beauty brands covers the store setup, and if you also sell restricted items, read how to sell age-restricted products online.

Setting up metafields, disclosures and product templates across a catalog is part of my Shopify development work, which starts from $300. Send me your store for a free review and I'll tell you what's missing.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. General Product Safety Regulations 2005: Great Britain, GOV.UK
2. Placing manufactured goods on the market in Great Britain, GOV.UK
3. Making cosmetic products available to consumers in Great Britain, GOV.UK
4. Labelling of textiles, Business Companion
5. General product safety regulation (2023): summary, EUR-Lex
6. Adding product disclosures, Shopify Help Center

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Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

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