in which language must I enter the data in the product passport for clothing

The choice of language is not yet laid down in the ESPR itself

The ESPR Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) establishes in Article 10 which technical and functional requirements apply to the digital product passport, but does not prescribe any specific language or languages for it. Article 10 addresses matters such as accessibility, the link to the data carrier and the reliability of the data, but the question of which language the content of the passport must be displayed in is determined at product group level. For clothing and textiles, this is done in the delegated act that is drawn up specifically for this product group, on the basis of the general frameworks set out in Articles 5 to 7 of the ESPR. Until that delegated act exists, the choice of language for the textile passport remains undetermined.

What is and is not covered by this question

This question specifically concerns the language of the data shown in the digital product passport itself — that is, the content that appears once someone scans the QR code. This is a different matter from the language of the care label or other physical labelling on the garment, for which longer-established rules apply and which are separate from the product passport; how the two relate to each other is described on the page about the relationship between the care label and the product passport. Nor does this question concern the language in which data are recorded internally or supplied by the manufacturer — that is a matter of administration and cooperation with the party that compiles the passport, not of the final display to the consumer or supervisory authority. And the question does not touch on which data must be included in the passport; an overview of that is described on the page about the data included in the product passport for clothing and textiles. This page concerns only the language in which that data are ultimately displayed.

When this will become clear

There is no established date on which the language requirements for the product passport for clothing will be announced. What is established is the sequence: the ESPR work plan for the period 2025-2030 provides for a delegated act for textiles, with clothing having a fibre content of eighty per cent or more being first in line. That delegated act will, like the other product group-specific implementations under Articles 5 to 7 of the ESPR, need to make the language requirements for the passport of that product group concrete. Until that act is published, there is no legal basis for determining whether the passport must be offered in one, multiple, or all languages of the Member States of destination. Once the text of the delegated act is known, this page will be updated with the language rules contained therein.

How this is being tackled in practice

For anyone preparing a product passport now, the most practical approach is not to view the choice of language as a standalone problem, but as part of the data structure already being built. First, the data that will eventually have to be included in the passport are put in order — think of fibre composition, origin and care information — regardless of the language in which they will ultimately be displayed. Next, it is advisable, when setting up the data structure, to take into account the possibility that data must be provided in multiple languages, because clothing is often sold in several Member States and earlier European legislation in other areas often proceeds on the basis of the language of the country in which the product is placed on the market. A passport that records data independently of a fixed language — for example by using standardised codes for fibre types or care instructions instead of free text — is thus easier to adapt once the language requirements are established. Anyone having a passport compiled through texpas.eu does not need to concern themselves with this: the translation and display in the correct language or languages will form part of the service once the rules are known.

Legal basis: Article 10 and Articles 5 to 7 of the ESPR

Article 10 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) describes the general requirements for the digital product passport, such as data accessibility and the link to the data carrier, but contains no language requirement. Articles 5 to 7 of the same regulation establish the framework within which, for each product group — via delegated acts — the ecodesign requirements and information requirements are elaborated, and this is also the place where a language requirement for clothing and textiles should be incorporated. Because the delegated act for textiles has not yet been published, current legislation contains no provision establishing the language in which the passport of a clothing item must be.

If you are already beginning to set up a passport now, it is best to structure the data in a language-independent manner and to follow the development of the delegated act for textiles; texpas.eu will update this page as soon as the text becomes known.

What this is based on

The regulation itself is available on EUR-Lex. We provide references for each statement; you do not need to take our word for it.

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

The ESPR stipulates that a product passport must be comprehensible for the users it is intended for, but the regulation itself does not establish a language regime in the text that has been elaborated so far for clothing and textiles. Article 10 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) sets out the requirements that the digital product passport must meet, and Articles 5 to 7 of the same regulation describe how the ecodesign and information requirements for each product group are further developed via delegated acts. For clothing and textiles, that specific act does not yet exist, and therefore the choice of language is not yet fixed at this time.

Accounting for a language requirement that may differ by product group

In other product groups for which delegated acts have already been drawn up, it can be seen that language requirements may differ per product and per market situation. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means in practice that the assumption "one language version is enough" does not automatically hold. It is more prudent to account in your own administration for the possibility that data must be available in multiple languages, once the final act for clothing and textiles becomes known.

Aligning with the languages of the countries where the product is sold

A line that frequently recurs in existing EU legislation on consumer information is that information must be comprehensible to the end user in the market where the product is offered. For a brand selling in multiple Member States, this means that the choice of language will probably not be independent of where the clothing is offered. A webshop selling in the Netherlands, Germany and France would be well advised to already inventory which data from which information goes into the product passport for clothing and textiles must be translatable, so that this translation does not have to be done hastily afterward.

Ensuring that translation does not change the meaning of technical data

A large part of the passport data is technical in nature: fibre percentages, chemical substances, washing instructions. When translating this type of data, precision is more important than with marketing texts, because an incorrect translation of a percentage or a substance name can change the meaning of the data. This directly concerns how the fibre composition is recorded in the product passport and the manner in which chemical treatments must be reported: a translation error in those fields is no longer a language matter, but a data matter.

Where things go wrong in practice

A first common situation: a brand compiles the passport in English, because that is the working language of the company, and assumes that this is sufficient for the entire EU market. Once the language requirement for textiles is established, this may still require adjustment.

A second scenario: the source text of the product passport is automatically translated without review by someone familiar with technical terminology. For fibre composition and chemical substances, this results in translations that do not align with the standardised designations used elsewhere in the EU.

A third scenario applies to private label: the importer receives data from the manufacturer in one language, translates it themselves for their own market, but keeps no record of which translation corresponds to which source text. During a later inspection or when data is amended, it is no longer possible to determine which version is the latest, correct translation.

A fourth scenario: a company sells the same garment under different brand names in different countries, and adapts the translation of the care label, but forgets to take the corresponding product passport data with it. This raises the question of how how the care label relates to the product passportthe two must align substantively with each other, even after translation.

A fifth situation: when data is updated — for example a new percentage of recycled fibre — the adjustment is carried out in the original language, but not in the other language versions that were already published. This intertwines with the question how current the data in the product passport must be: a language version that lags behind is in fact an outdated version.

What you can record

An overview of the countries where the clothing is sold, linked to the language that is customary there for consumer information.
One source language and source text per product group, so that it is clear which version is the original, authoritative text and which versions are translations.
A list of standardized terms for fiber names, chemical substances and care instructions, so that translators do not have to make their own word choices each time.
A procedure for updating all language versions simultaneously when a piece of data in the passport changes.
A note of who made or checked the translation, and on what date, so that this can be traced in case of subsequent questions.
A reference to the source of each piece of data, so that in case of doubt about a translation, it can be traced back to the original, untranslated information as recorded according to the data from which information goes into the product passport for clothing and textiles.

Once the delegated act for clothing and textiles is published and establishes a language regime, this page will be supplemented with the concrete requirement.

This is not legal advice. This page provides general information about the regulations that this platform covers. We are not familiar with your situation. If you are in doubt about your own case, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.

Written with AI based on the sources above, checked by a human on 2026-09-05. Is something not right? Let us know — corrections are given priority.