The GARAN label explained: when a Shopify product needs one, and where it goes

The GARAN label is the harmonised European mark that tells a shopper, next to the product image, how many years of commercial durability guarantee the producer gives on top of the two-year legal guarantee. Its wording, colours and layout are fixed in Annex II of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960, and it becomes mandatory for qualifying goods sold to EU consumers from 27 September 2026.

That definition is the answer to almost every question merchants ask about it. The rest of this guide is the detail behind it: which products need the label, which only need the separate notice, where each one sits on a Shopify product page, and why the artwork cannot be translated or redrawn.

Notice or label? The distinction that decides everything

Two different marks become mandatory on the same date. Confusing them is the single most common compliance error.

	Legal guarantee notice	GARAN durability label
Legal basis	Annex I, Reg. (EU) 2025/1960, under Directive (EU) 2024/825	Annex II, same regulation
What it says	Every good carries a two-year legal guarantee of conformity	The producer’s durability guarantee lasts N years
Applies to	All goods sold to EU consumers	Only goods with a free producer guarantee longer than two years
Per product?	No — identical everywhere	Yes — it carries that product’s duration
Where it goes	Prominently before purchase: product page or cart/checkout path	Next to the product image
Languages	One official translation per storefront language (24 in total)	One language-neutral artwork for all 24

Most stores need the notice and never need the label. The notice covers every physical good; the label only appears where a producer actively offers a longer, free durability guarantee.

Which products actually need the GARAN label

The label is a narrow obligation. It applies only when all of the following are true:

1. The product is physical goods sold to a consumer in an EU member state.
2. The producer — not the shop — offers a commercial guarantee of durability.
3. That guarantee is offered free of charge.
4. It runs for longer than two years.

Situation	GARAN label?
Producer offers a free 5-year or 10-year durability guarantee	Yes
Producer offers the standard two-year legal guarantee only	No — notice only
The shop sells its own paid extended warranty	No — the label covers the producer’s free guarantee
Guarantee is exactly two years	No — it must be longer than two years
Digital products or services	Out of scope
Second-hand physical goods	Covered like new goods

Furniture, tools, appliances, electronics and outdoor gear are the categories where producers most often offer 5- or 10-year guarantees, so that is where the label normally appears first.

Where the label goes on a Shopify product page

Annex II is specific: the label sits next to the product image. On a Shopify product template that means beside the product media, not buried in the description tab or the footer. The label is per product, so a single store-wide notice cannot substitute for it — and a store-wide notice cannot be replaced by the label either.

If you sell into the EU and elsewhere from the same store, the label can be limited to EU/EEA visitors using Shopify Markets, so a US or UK shopper never sees a mark that does not apply to them.

Why the artwork cannot be redrawn or translated

The label is not a badge a designer can restyle. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 fixes every element, and the label is deliberately language-neutral: one field already lists “producer guarantee in years” in all 24 official EU languages, so a single artwork serves every market. Only the duration is drawn into the field the regulation reserves for it.

That neutrality is why shipping the label is far simpler than shipping the notice. The notice must be displayed in the shopper’s language, which means 24 files; the label is one file, whatever the storefront language.

Two mistakes follow from this:

• Redrawing or recolouring the label to match a theme. The regulation forbids it, and a paraphrased label is treated as no label.
• Using the notice where the label is required. They are not interchangeable, and showing the wrong one on a product with a long producer guarantee is still non-compliance.

Deadline and enforcement

Both marks apply from 27 September 2026 (Article 3 of Reg. (EU) 2025/1960). Enforcement is national and varies by member state:

• In Germany, competitors and consumer associations can send warning letters (Abmahnung) for missing mandatory information under unfair-competition law.
• Elsewhere, consumer-protection authorities handle it, with fines that can scale with annual turnover in serious cases.

There is no automated penalty on day one, but a missing label is visible to anyone who looks — including the competitors who send warning letters.

The five-minute check for your store

The fastest way to do all of this on Shopify is an app that serves the Annex II artwork, takes the duration per product, and renders the label only where a product qualifies. The EU Guarantee Label app does that in about five minutes, with the label free on up to five products, and keeps the notice and the label as two clearly separate settings so the distinction above never gets blurred.

For the wider picture, read how to comply with Directive 2024/825 on Shopify or the step-by-step install walkthrough.

Sources: Directive (EU) 2024/825 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 (OJ L, 2.10.2025). Law facts verified against EUR-Lex on 4 September 2026.

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This page summarises Directive (EU) 2024/825 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 for information only. It is not legal advice.