What the EU Textile Regulation says about online sales
The rules are set out in Regulation (EU) No. 1007/2011 on textile fiber names and labeling of fiber composition. They apply to textile products and to products that consist of at least 80 percent textile fibers by weight. Clothing, scarves, bedding, and fabric bags are therefore almost always covered.
Article 16 is the most important one for online stores. It says the fiber composition must be clearly visible to the consumer before purchase, including when the purchase is made electronically. For an online store, a composition shown only on the label inside the garment is not enough: it belongs on the product page, the PDP.
The regulation does not place responsibility only on the manufacturer. A retailer that sells textiles must make sure the product has the correct labeling, and anyone who sells a product under their own name or changes the label is considered the manufacturer. In the Netherlands, the NVWA supervises textile labels.
This is a summary, not legal advice. Always check the current requirements: the EU is working on a revision of textile labeling rules.
Exactly what needs to be on the product page
For a product made from multiple fibers, list the name and percentage by weight of every fiber, from highest to lowest. So 95% cotton, 5% elastane, not the other way around. The text must be easy to read, use a consistent font size and style, and be in the language of the country where you sell; for the Netherlands, that is Dutch.
If a garment has parts with a different composition, such as a coat with a lining, list the composition for each part. This is not required for small parts that together make up less than 30 percent of the weight, but it is always required for the main lining. If a product contains parts of animal origin that are not textile, such as leather or fur, the sentence 'Contains non-textile parts of animal origin' must be included.
A brand name may appear directly before or after the composition, but other information should be kept separate. Put the composition on its own line or in its own field, not hidden inside persuasive product copy.
| Product | How to write it |
|---|---|
| T-shirt made from one fiber | 100% cotton |
| Jeans with stretch | 98% cotton, 2% elastane |
| Lined coat | Shell: 80% wool, 20% polyamide. Lining: 100% viscose |
| Sweater with leather elbow patches | 70% wool, 30% acrylic. Contains non-textile parts of animal origin |
| Recycled blend, small residual fibers | 60% cotton, 35% polyester, 5% other fibers |
The official fiber names: cotton, polyester, elastane
You may only use the fiber names listed in Annex I of the regulation. That list defines the required names for each language; in English, examples include cotton, wool, silk, flax or linen, viscose, modal, lyocell, polyester, polyamide or nylon, acrylic, and elastane. A fiber that is not on the list may be labeled as “other fibers,” with the percentage included.
Fiber brand names are not fiber names. Lycra is a brand; the fiber is called elastane. Spandex is an English term that does not appear in the Dutch list. Bamboo is not a fiber name either: bamboo fiber made as viscose is simply called viscose on the label.
| What you often see | Official fiber name |
|---|---|
| cotton, coton, Baumwolle | cotton |
| Lycra, spandex, stretch | elastane |
| nylon | polyamide or nylon |
| bamboo, rayon | usually viscose; modal or lyocell if made that way |
| Tencel | lyocell (Tencel is a brand name) |
| linen, lin | flax or linen |
| cashmere | cashmere |
| lambswool, merino | wool (with an additional description if needed) |
Not sure about a fiber name? Check Annex I of Regulation 1007/2011 on EUR-Lex. That list is authoritative, not what the supplier puts on the invoice.
When can you write 100%, pure, or all?
You may use the words 100%, pure, and all only if a product consists of a single fiber type. It may contain no more than 2 percent foreign fibers, or 5 percent for carded products, and only if that is technically unavoidable. A shirt with 3 percent elastane is therefore never 100% cotton.
There is a limit for “other fibers”: you may use that term for one fiber up to 5 percent, or for several fibers together up to 15 percent, if they are difficult to determine precisely during production. There is also a 3 percent manufacturing tolerance between what appears on the label and what a laboratory measures. Decorative fibers up to 7 percent and antistatic fibers up to 2 percent do not have to be included in the composition.
There is an additional term for wool: virgin wool. It may only be used for wool that has not previously been part of a finished product. In a blend, it may only be used if that wool makes up at least 25 percent of the weight, and the full composition must be provided as well.
The most common mistakes in online stores
Most mistakes are not intentional; they happen when information is copied over. Someone copies the composition from a supplier list in English, leaves out the lining because the field has only one line, or pastes the composition into the middle of a product description. These are the mistakes you see most often.
- No composition on the product page, only on the label inside the garment
- English or German fiber names in a Dutch webshop, such as cotton or Baumwolle
- Brand names instead of fiber names, such as Lycra or Tencel without the official name
- 100% cotton for a product that contains elastane
- Percentages that do not add up to 100, or are not in descending order
- Only the outer fabric is listed for a lined coat
- Leather or fur on a sweater without the statement about parts of animal origin
- Using bamboo or silky-soft as the fiber name when the material is viscose or polyester
What the rules do not cover, and when it can be simpler
Not everything made with fabric is a textile product under the regulation. Annex V lists products for which fiber composition is not mandatory, such as textile watch straps, zippers, toys, leather goods, textile travel products, and the textile parts of footwear. Leather itself is not a textile fiber; footwear has its own labeling rules.
Care symbols are not mandatory in the Netherlands, but customers do expect them. Our article on care symbols explains how to read them and add them to the product page. Origin, such as made in, is also not a mandatory element under this regulation.
If you sell only a small number of items and your supplier provides the composition clearly in Dutch, you do not need a tool: a fixed field in your webshop and a check during data entry are enough. Automation only pays off when you have hundreds of items per season, with data from different sources and languages.
How Photopilot reads the composition and adds it to your online store
Photopilot first checks whether the composition is already coming in digitally: through Fashion Cloud, from your POS or ERP system such as ACA or Business Central, or from a product feed. That data is normalized to one fixed materials list, so cotton, coton, and katoen all become the same material and your webshop shows the same name everywhere.
If the composition is missing, photograph the care label with the Product Info scanner in the iPhone app, right after scanning the barcode. AI reads the label and links each fiber to the material list, including the percentage. If multiple components are listed, such as outer fabric, lining, and filling, they remain separate. Any fiber that is not in the list is shown so you can check it, and a new scan replaces the previous result.
The composition then goes to your online store. In Shopify, Photopilot stores the material as a product metafield, with a readable composition such as 54% wool, 44% polyester, and the Photopilot app theme block displays it on the product page. In Shopware, it becomes a property, optionally as a filter, and in other systems it is included in the export as an attribute. The same data also feeds the product texts.
Edits such as background, crop, and publishing are included in the plan, which starts at €500 per month. AI material analysis, like other generative AI, is billed per use. You remain responsible for what appears online, so every result can be checked and adjusted before it goes live.
- 1. Use the composition from supplier data, POS, or feed where available
- 2. If it is missing, photograph the material label in the iPhone app
- 3. AI reads fibers, percentages, and components, and links them to one material list
- 4. Review and publish as a metafield, property, or export field