Textile labelling required in advertising?

Any person who distributes clothing must in principle provide customers with information on the composition of the respective textiles. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) then had to decide whether textile labelling is also required in an advertising prospectus in which no direct ordering facility is offered.

A fashion retailer advertised in a prospectus the sale of the latest collections of clothing items distributed by the company. In doing so, the fashion retailer made no disclosures regarding the textile composition of the clothing.

The German Competition Association (Wettbewerbszentrale) considered this to be a breach of competition law of the Textile Labelling Regulation, which obliges sellers of textiles to provide information about the textile fibre composition provided that the goods are placed on the market.

Court decision

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided by judgment of 24.03.2016 – case number I ZR 7/15 – that a fashion retailer need not provide information about the composition of textiles in the advertising of textiles if the advertising prospectus offers no direct possibility of placing an order.

The prospectus advertising is merely consumer information intended to attract customers into the fashion retailer's retail store. Only in the store would purchase contracts then be concluded. Thus the information obligations regarding textile labelling are only to be made available in the retail store.

Conclusion

The statutory information obligations for textiles need only be made available to the consumer when the customer is able to order the goods. If this is already provided for in the prospectus, the textile labelling must be provided there as well.