What is the GARAN label?

What the label communicates

GARAN is a single, recognisable mark used across the whole EU, so shoppers see the same label whatever the country or language. It shows the guaranteed duration in years together with the brand and the model it applies to.

Because the design is harmonised, the label works as a trust signal: it tells buyers, at a glance, that a product is backed by a longer commercial guarantee than the law already requires. It is not a quality seal, and no authority tests the product before the label goes on it. What it certifies is narrower, and more useful for that reason. A specific promise, of a specific length, by a specific producer, for a specific model.

Where GARAN comes from

Three instruments sit behind the label, and it pays to keep them apart.

Directive (EU) 2024/825, the EmpCo Directive (Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition), amended the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU and inserted a new Article 22a into it. That article is what requires two harmonised items to exist: a notice on the legal guarantee of conformity, and a label for the commercial guarantee of durability.

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 is the act that then fixed the design and content of both. It was published in the Official Journal on 2 October 2025 and applies from 27 September 2026.

So the obligation comes from the directive, while the appearance of the label comes from the implementing regulation and its annexes. When someone asks which text governs how the label looks, the answer is the implementing regulation. When they ask why the label exists at all, the answer is Article 22a.

The four conditions for using it

The label is not a badge you may add at will. It is reserved for one specific kind of promise, and every one of the following has to hold at the same time:

1. The guarantee is commercial, meaning a voluntary undertaking by the producer rather than a right the consumer already has by law.
2. It is offered at no additional cost to the consumer. A paid extended warranty does not qualify.
3. It covers the entire good, not a single component. A ten-year promise on the motor inside an appliance is not a durability guarantee for the appliance.
4. Its duration is more than two years, since two years is already the baseline of the legal guarantee.

The Consumer Rights Directive sets these out in Article 5(1)(ea), and they are cumulative. Miss one and the label must not be used, even where the underlying promise is generous. If your case sits close to the line, work through who needs a GARAN label or run the eligibility check.

What is fixed and what you can change

Exactly three fields are editable. Everything else is fixed by Annexes I and II of the regulation and must not be altered.

• Editable: the guarantee duration in years, a value greater than two, in whole or half years.
• Editable: the brand or manufacturer name.
• Editable: the model identifier.
• Fixed: the GARAN title, the tick and calendar symbols, the legal guarantee reminder, the QR code and the multilingual translation strip.

The typeface is fixed as well. The regulation mandates Inter, an open typeface under the SIL Open Font License, in three weights (Regular, SemiBold and ExtraBold). Substituting a house font, even a close one, makes the label non-conformant. The GARAN Generator bundles the correct weights and outlines the text into vector paths, so a downloaded file does not depend on the font being installed anywhere else. You can see the result across durations and variants in the example gallery.

Three worked examples

A washing machine with a five-year promise. Duration is 5, brand is the manufacturer's name as consumers know it, model is the commercial model identifier rather than an internal SKU where the two differ. This is the straightforward case.

A bicycle frame with a ten-year promise. This one usually fails the third condition. If the promise covers the frame and not the bicycle, it is a component guarantee, and the label does not belong next to the bicycle. A ten-year promise on the complete bicycle would qualify.

A private-label kettle guaranteed for three years. Here the open question is the brand field, not the duration. The label names the party offering the guarantee. If the retailer's own brand offers it, that brand belongs in the field; if the promise comes from the original manufacturer, its name does. Decide who is actually making the commitment, then put that name on the label.

Who displays it, the producer or the trader

Both routes are permitted. A producer may affix the label to the packaging, which relieves the trader of doing it separately. Where the producer has not, the trader displays it prominently, having first established that the producer does in fact offer a qualifying guarantee.

In practice a retailer therefore needs the producer's confirmation of both the duration and the scope of the guarantee before placing a GARAN label next to a product, since those are the facts the four conditions turn on.

Where the label appears

Online, the label is shown in colour, positioned directly next to the product image, together with a clickable link to the official EU explanation. A nested or expandable display is allowed to save space, provided the full label appears in its entirety on the first click, roll-over or tap.

In physical retail it goes on the packaging, or prominently on the shelf display, printed at a minimum of 95 by 100 mm. Colour or black and white are both acceptable offline, while online the colour variant is required. In every case the translation strip along the bottom is an integral part of the label and must not be cropped, covered or scaled away.

GARAN is not the legal guarantee notice

Article 22a produced two items, and they are routinely confused.

The GARAN label is conditional and concerns the voluntary commercial guarantee. The harmonised notice on the legal guarantee of conformity is unconditional: it explains the rights every consumer already has under Directive (EU) 2019/771, applies to goods generally rather than only to guaranteed ones, and is a separate document with its own fixed layout and its own minimum size. A product can require the notice and not the label. It cannot require the label without the notice also being in play. The difference is set out in full under commercial guarantee versus legal guarantee.

Common misconceptions

• The QR code is not yours. It is standardised and identical on every label, pointing at one fixed europa.eu page. It carries no tracking and must not be replaced with a code of your own.
• It is not a CE mark. It says nothing about conformity with product safety law and does not substitute for any safety marking.
• It does not extend or replace legal rights. The legal guarantee runs regardless of whether a GARAN label exists.
• It is not a quality award. Nobody assesses the product. The label reports a commitment the producer has chosen to make.
• You cannot redesign it. No recolouring, no restretching, no rearranging, and no translating the fixed text yourself. The translations are already on the label.

Where responsibility sits

The regulation applies directly across the EU, and responsibility for labelling your products correctly stays with you as the seller or producer. How the rules are applied in practice, and what follows from getting them wrong, depends on national law and is outside the scope of this page.

This page is guidance, not legal advice. The published text on EUR-Lex is authoritative: check it, and where needed your own legal advice, for your specific situation and country. The compliance checklist walks through the practical points that most often go wrong.