Label compliance: a guide to pack and label rules by market

What does label compliance cover?

Label compliance covers six kinds of information on a label or pack: mandatory product information, safety warnings, claims, recycling and sorting marks, language, and traceability details. Which of them apply depends on the product category and the market.

Packaging compliance is the same idea applied to the whole pack, and food label compliance applies it to food labels, which carry some of the most detailed rules. Instructions and leaflets that go in the box are covered in our technical documentation guide.

Which packaging and labeling rules apply in which markets?

Each market sets its own packaging and labeling rules, and a pack that’s compliant in one market can break the rules of the next. These are among the rules packaging teams selling in the EU, UK, US and Canada work with most.

What’s changing in packaging rules through 2030?

The biggest packaging changes through 2030 are the EU’s new packaging, green claims and chemical label rules, California’s recyclable claims law, and digital product passports. Each one changes what can be printed on packs already in design.

1. January 2025California Proposition 65 short-form warning changesPhased in through 2028.
2. August 12, 2026EU PPWR appliesHarmonized sorting labels and material marks follow later.
3. September 27, 2026EU Empowering Consumers Directive appliesLimits vague environmental claims and offset-based neutrality claims.
4. October 4, 2026California SB 343 takes effectSets when recyclable claims and the chasing arrows symbol can appear.
5. March 16, 2027China’s GB 7718-2025 food labeling standard takes effectAllergen emphasis, digital labels and new date marking on prepackaged foods.
6. January 1, 2028Revised EU CLP formatting rules applyCovers label formatting, online sales and advertising of hazardous chemicals.
7. August 1, 2030EU Toy Safety Regulation appliesAdds a digital product passport and warnings shown online.

Digital product passports under the EU Ecodesign Regulation arrive product group by product group, as delegated acts are adopted.

Where does label copy most often go wrong?

Label copy usually goes wrong between approval and print: when copy is adapted for another market, translated, moved into artwork or reused for a reprint. The rules themselves are rarely the problem. Keeping every pack in step with them is.

• Copy changes on the way into artwork. The copy deck was approved, but a line was retyped, shortened or dropped in the design file.
• Units and formats copied from another market. Ounces on an EU pack, a US date format on a UK label.
• A claim approved in one market reused in another. A health or environmental claim that’s allowed in one market and not in the next.
• A translation that’s accurate but incomplete. The words are right, but a mandatory statement or a required language is missing.
• A product change that doesn’t reach every SKU. A reformulation, supplier change or withdrawn claim updated on one pack and not the rest.
• Old artwork reused for a reprint. The last approved file goes back to the printer after a rule or claim has changed.
• Warnings in the wrong form. The wrong signal word, missing allergen emphasis or an out-of-date hazard statement.

Based on the pack and label work we see; not a ranked or statistical list.

How do you check packaging compliance before print?

Check packaging compliance in four steps before print: lock the approved record, check the copy against it, check the artwork proof against the approved copy, and record every decision. We call this the four-check pre-print review.

1. Lock the approved recordAgree the approved claims, product facts, warnings and your reading of each market’s rules, in one place with an owner and a date.
2. Check the copy against itCheck each market’s pack copy, in every language, against that record, not against another market’s pack.
3. Check the proof against the copyCompare the artwork proof with the approved copy, line by line, so nothing changes on the way into artwork.
4. Record and recheckRecord who approved what, for which market and when, and recheck every pack when a claim or rule changes.

Who is responsible for packaging compliance?

Responsibility for packaging compliance usually sits with the brand owner or the business that places the product on the market. Who that is depends on the rule and the market.

Inside a manufacturer, the work is shared between regulatory or quality, packaging and artwork, product content and marketing. Retailers selling private-label products take on the brand owner’s role for their own brands. Importers and distributors often carry duties too, such as the EU General Product Safety Regulation’s rules on who must be named on the product.