The EU legal guarantee notice: what Regulation 2025/1960 asks of online shops

Every consumer in the European Union already has a legal guarantee: if goods do not match what was agreed within at least two years, the seller has to put them right. That right is not new. What is new is that, from 27 September 2026, sellers have to tell shoppers about it in a fixed, EU-wide format — the same notice, laid out the same way, in every shop.

The rule comes from Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1960, adopted on 25 September 2025. It sets the exact design and wording of a harmonised notice on the legal guarantee of conformity, and of a separate label for longer commercial durability guarantees. It sits under the Sale of Goods Directive (EU) 2019/771 and the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EU) 2024/825, which asked the Commission to standardise how these guarantees are communicated.

What the notice actually says

The point of a harmonised notice is that a seller does not write it. The Commission publishes the artwork and the text; the shop displays it unchanged. It tells the shopper, in plain terms, that:

• goods come with a legal guarantee of at least two years, at no extra cost
• the seller is responsible if the goods do not conform to the contract
• the shopper can ask for repair or replacement, and in some cases a price reduction or a refund
• national law may give stronger or longer rights, and where to check them

The published notice carries a QR code that points to country-specific information, so a shopper in one country and a shopper in another reach the rules that apply to them from the same piece of artwork.

Where and when it has to appear

For an online shop, the notice has to be shown before the consumer is bound by the contract — in practice, on the product page, in a place a shopper sees before they buy. The regulation allows a nested, expandable presentation online as long as the full notice appears on first interaction, so it does not have to dominate the page, but it does have to be genuinely reachable pre-purchase.

It must be in colour online, and it must be understandable to the shopper — which in practice means the language of the market you are selling into, not English everywhere. The Commission publishes the notice in every official EU language for exactly this reason.

Who has to do this

The obligation follows the consumer, not the company's address. A business selling goods to EU consumers is covered whether it is based in the EU or outside it — a shop in the UK, the US or China that ships to EU customers is in scope. Both retailers and, for the durability label, producers have roles to play.

The durability label is a separate thing

Alongside the legal-guarantee notice, the regulation defines a harmonised durability label — often called the GARAN label. It applies when a producer offers, at no extra cost, a commercial guarantee of durability longer than the two-year legal guarantee and covering the whole product. It carries the number of years, the brand and the model. If none of your products has such a guarantee, the label simply does not apply to you; the legal-guarantee notice still does.

How to get ready

There is no transition period after 27 September 2026, so the practical work is to make sure the official notice is displayed on product pages, in the shopper's language, before that date — and, because the regulation also expects the information before the order and again in the confirmation, to include it in the order confirmation email. Our step-by-step guide covers how to do that on Shopify.

Read: how to show the notice on your Shopify store

One caveat worth stating plainly: displaying the official notice is a necessary step, but this article is information, not legal advice, and showing a notice does not by itself make a shop compliant with every obligation it may have. If the stakes are high for your business, check your specific situation with a qualified adviser in the markets you sell to.