Guide · 23 September 2026
The GARAN label: when you are allowed to show it
The GARAN durability label is the more eye-catching of the two new EU marks — and the one there is more to get wrong. It is voluntary, and for most shops it is simply not permitted. This page covers when it is lawful, how it has to look, and what a Shopify store needs in order to show it.
The four conditions
You may show the label on a product only where the producer of that product offers a commercial guarantee of durability that meets all four:
- It costs the buyer nothing.
- It covers the entire product, not one component.
- It runs for more than two years — exactly two is not enough.
- The producer made that information available to you.
The last one is easy to skim past and is the one that decides most cases. The Commission's guidelines say plainly that sellers "should not actively seek such information from the producer". The label is not the result of research. It is passing on an undertaking you were given.
If you make the product yourself you may offer such a guarantee and use the label — and then the obligations under "If you are the producer" below apply to you as well.
What is not a GARAN case
- Your own retailer warranty. You may offer it and advertise it — just not with this label. The label stands for the producer's guarantee.
- A paid extended warranty. If it costs money, it is out.
- A guarantee on one part — ten years on the frame, two on everything else.
- The legal guarantee. The two years every buyer already has are not a selling point: presenting a legal requirement as a distinctive feature goes onto the Unfair Commercial Practices blacklist on the same day these rules apply.
Using the label in any of those cases is an unfair commercial practice, with the usual consequences — a warning letter, an injunction, a fine.
How the label has to look
It is official artwork. Fixed are the GARAN mark with its tick, the reminder about legal rights, the QR code, the calendar symbol and the language strip reading "producer guarantee in years" in all 24 languages — that strip "cannot be omitted or cut out".
You may fill in exactly three fields:
- The duration — whole or half years, more than two, written with a decimal comma: 2,5 and 3 are fine, 4,1 is not.
- The producer (brand or trade name).
- The model identifier.
Online the label may be shown nested: a compact element showing only the number of years, which opens the full label on first click, roll-over or tap. It has to be tied to the specific product — never a banner over several products of which only some are covered — and it belongs before the purchase too, so on the cart page and in the order confirmation.
If you are the producer
Then a second duty comes with it: a commercial guarantee statement. It carries the reminder that the buyer's legal rights are unaffected, your name and address, the goods covered, the terms of the guarantee and how to make a claim, and it has to reach the consumer on a durable medium. In a Shopify store that is usually a page of its own, which the label points to.
In a Shopify store
In practice you need three things: the values per product (duration, producer, model), the artwork in the right place on the product page and in the cart — and, if somebody asks later, the record of what the claim rests on.
PlainClaim makes that a block you drop under the price in the theme editor. The values live in the app or directly in the product metafields — and every label rests on a dated confirmation that the producer really does offer the guarantee. No confirmation, no label; on invalid data it shows nothing rather than something wrong. The label itself is free and included in every plan, with no product limit.
We do not guess. The app's AI features will at most suggest that you look at a product; a person has to confirm it. Inferring durability guarantees from product copy produces exactly the false claims these rules were written against.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2025/1960 (Annex II covers the label), Directive (EU) 2024/825, and the European Commission's guidelines and official files.
The one-page checklist
The four conditions, the notice, the product-page duties and the claims that become illegal on 27 September — one page, every point sourced.
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Honest notes
This page is not legal advice. It reports what the Regulation and the guidelines say, with sources to read for yourself. Whether a particular product is covered is your call — and, if it is close, a lawyer's.
Most shops need no label at all. That is not a gap in your store, it is the normal case: few producers give a free guarantee of more than two years on the whole product. What is mandatory is the legal guarantee notice, not the label.