Product label and packaging-marking review

Marking and labelling are the information fixed to the product or, when the act allows it, to the packaging or an accompanying document. Where Union harmonisation legislation provides for CE marking, Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, Article 30, requires that marking to be affixed visibly, legibly and indelibly, in the form set out for it. CE marking is not a general quality seal and not an official approval.

For consumer products, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Article 9(5) and (6), requires a type, batch or serial identification and the manufacturer's name, trade name or trade mark and postal and electronic address, on the product or, where that is not possible, on the packaging or in a document accompanying the product.

The manufacturer affixes the CE marking only where Union harmonisation legislation provides for it, and only on a product that meets the requirements of that legislation. An authorised representative may affix it only where the mandate provides for that. Regulation (EU) 2023/988 does not provide for CE marking. Importers and distributors have their own duties to check that required marking is present. Checking a mark does not make them the manufacturer.

• CE marking only where the applicable act provides for it, visible, legible and indelible.
• A type, batch or serial identification that can be read by the user.
• The manufacturer's name and a postal address, and for consumer products under the GPSR also an electronic address.
• Warnings needed for risks that remain after the design measures.
• The language of those warnings for the Member State in which the product is made available.

These are general patterns, not a finding about a particular marking.

• A CE mark is present although no applicable act provides for it, or it is missing although the act does.
• The mark is not legible or does not follow the prescribed form.
• The manufacturer cannot be identified from the product, the packaging or the accompanying document.
• Warnings exist only in a language the user in the Member State of sale cannot be expected to understand.
• Text on the packaging is treated as if it completed the marking of the product itself.

• Which acts are believed to require a mark or a label?
• Where are the mark, the product identity and the manufacturer identity placed today?
• Does the review cover the product, the packaging, or both?
• In which Member States will the product be made available, and in which languages are the warnings written?
• Is there current artwork or a photograph of the marking?

There is no CE marking under Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (the GPSR). CE marking applies only to products covered by Union harmonisation legislation that provides for it (Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, Article 30). The obligations depend on the product and on the applicable act. The rules of the Machinery Directive, the Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU and the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU are those harmonisation rules where they cover the product. They are separate from the GPSR. A packaging-marking review is not a complete PPWR conformity assessment. The PPWR has its own conformity-documentation framework.

Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 allows CE marking only on products for which it is provided. Affixing it to another product, or a mark that can be confused with it, is outside that rule.