What is the EU GARAN label?

GARAN is the harmonised EU label for a commercial guarantee of durability, defined by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960. It marks goods the producer guarantees, free of charge, for longer than the two-year legal guarantee. It is separate from the mandatory legal guarantee notice.

Does my shop need a GARAN label?

Most shops do not. GARAN applies only where the producer of the goods offers a durability guarantee at no additional cost, covering the whole product, for more than two years, and has made that information available to the trader. A shop that resells goods without such a producer guarantee has nothing to label.

Is two years enough for a GARAN label?

No. Two years or less is the legal guarantee every EU consumer already has by law. Presenting a legal right as an extra offered by the seller is listed in Annex I of Directive 2005/29/EC as unfair in all circumstances, with no need to show any consumer was misled. The duration must exceed two years.

What goes on the GARAN label?

Three editable fields: the duration in years, the producer's brand or trademark, and the model identifier. Durations are whole years or a half year written with a comma, such as 2,5 or 4,5. No other decimal is permitted. Everything else, including the phrase 'producer guarantee in years' printed in all EU languages along the bottom, is fixed and may not be cut out.

Can a seller display GARAN without the producer's guarantee?

No, and the risk falls on the seller rather than the producer. Displaying a quality mark without authorisation, or claiming a product has features it does not have, are both blacklisted practices under Annex I of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

The EU GARAN label, and why most shops may not use it

GARAN is the second harmonised label in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960, and it is the one people get wrong. It is not the mandatory notice, it is not a badge you award your own products, and for most shops the correct answer is that they have nothing to label. Here is how to tell.

What it actually marks

A commercial guarantee of durability offered by the producer. Not a warranty you sell, not a returns policy, not a quality promise you make about goods you resell. The label tells a shopper that the manufacturer stands behind this specific model for longer than the law already requires.

The five conditions, all about the producer

From Article 6(1)(la) of Directive 2011/83/EU, as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/825. Every one of them has to be true:

the producer offers a commercial guarantee of durability for the goods,
at no additional cost to the consumer,
covering the entire good, not one component such as the motor or the frame,
for longer than two years, and
the producer has made that information available to the trader.

If you manufacture what you sell, or you import it into the EU, or you put your own name on it, then you may be the producer and these can be true of you. If you resell someone else's goods and they have not told you about a durability guarantee, there is nothing here for you to display.

Two years is not a GARAN

This is the trap. Every consumer in the EU already has at least two years of legal guarantee on goods, by law, from the seller. Presenting that legal right as something your shop generously offers is listed in Annex I of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC, which Article 5(5) makes unfair in all circumstances. There is no materiality test to argue about: no one has to show a shopper was actually misled.

So a two-year guarantee earns no label. Nor does a two-year guarantee described as "extended". The duration on a GARAN label must exceed two years, and it is the producer's duration, not yours.

What the label carries

Three fields the producer fills in: the duration in years, the brand or trademark, and the model identifier. Durations are whole years, or a half year written with a comma: 2,5 or 4,5. No other decimal is allowed, so 4,1 is not permitted.

Everything else is fixed: the GARAN title and tick, the shield logo, the calendar symbol, the QR code pointing to the Your Europe page on commercial guarantees of durability, and the line reading "producer guarantee in years" printed in every official EU language along the bottom. That line is an integral part of the label and may not be cut out, which is also why the artwork is language-neutral: one file works everywhere.

How it has to appear online

In colour. The black and white version is for physical shops only.
Legible at default display size, associated with the specific product.
A compact "nested" version may stand in, but the full label must open on the first click, roll-over or tap.
A clickable link to the QR code's destination must always be available.

Where to get the artwork

From the Commission, as high resolution vector files, with the practical guidelines alongside. Do not redraw it. The typography is specified, including the typeface for the three editable fields, and a re-typeset lookalike is not the harmonised label.

If you sell on Shopify

We build Clearmark. Its GARAN feature deliberately refuses more than it accepts: it will not take a duration of two years or less, it will not accept a decimal other than a half, and it asks you to confirm each of the five producer conditions for each product before the label goes anywhere near your storefront. That refusal is the point. The mandatory legal guarantee notice is free in the app, and if most of your catalogue has no GARAN, that is the correct outcome rather than a missing feature.

This page explains a published EU regulation and links to the primary sources. It is not legal advice, and whether an obligation applies to your business is your decision to make. Last reviewed 19 August 2026.