Selling Home Textiles to the EU: What Does GPSR Require in 2026?

Short answer: if you sell cushions, curtains, bedding, throws, or table linen to EU consumers, two sets of rules matter. The General Product Safety Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (GPSR) applies since 13 December 2024 and requires a risk assessment, technical documentation, traceability details, and relevant safety warnings — with no exemption for handmade or small-batch sellers. The Textile Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 makes fibre composition labelling mandatory for almost every textile product. What is not required: CE marking on ordinary home textiles, and — perhaps surprisingly — the familiar washing-care symbols, which are a voluntary system in the EU. Care instructions still become legally required whenever safe use of the product depends on them.

Does the GPSR apply to home textiles?

Yes — since 13 December 2024 the GPSR covers virtually every consumer home textile, from a handmade cushion cover to imported blackout curtains. Under Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988, you may only place safe products on the EU market, and Article 9(2) obliges you as the manufacturer (which includes having products made and selling them under your own name) to carry out an internal risk analysis and keep technical documentation for 10 years. Article 9(5) adds traceability: a type, batch, or serial number plus your name and postal and electronic address on the product, its packaging, or an accompanying document. If you produce outside the EU, you also need an EU-based Responsible Person before you sell.

Marketplaces enforce this at the listing level: Etsy, eBay, and Amazon all collect manufacturer, Responsible Person, and safety-warning fields for EEA-bound listings, and leave them empty at your peril — see our Etsy GPSR guide and the decoder for eBay's "add product safety information" notice.

One honest simplification in your favour: ordinary home textiles are not CE-marked products. Unless your item is actually a toy (a plush cushion marketed for play) or PPE, there is no CE regime to follow — the GPSR's general safety requirement is the safety law that applies.

Is fibre composition labelling mandatory? (Regulation 1007/2011)

Yes — fibre composition labelling is the one textile-specific labelling law that is unambiguously mandatory across the EU. Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 applies to products consisting of at least 80 % textile fibres by weight (Article 2(2)) — which captures nearly all curtains, bedding, cushion covers, and towels. The core rules:

Rule	Where	What it means for you
Label or mark fibre composition	Art. 14(1)	Every textile product made available on the market must show its fibre composition; labelling must be durable, easily legible, visible and accessible
Use only official fibre names	Art. 5(1)	Only the names in Annex I ("cotton", "linen", "polyester"…) — trade names like "Lycra" don't replace "elastane"
"100 %" / "pure" / "all"	Art. 7(1)	Only for products made of a single fibre — a 97 % cotton / 3 % elastane cushion cover is not "pure cotton"
Multi-fibre products	Art. 9(1)	Name and percentage by weight of all fibres, in descending order (e.g., "80 % cotton, 20 % polyester")
Animal-origin parts	Art. 12(1)	Feather filling, leather trim, horn buttons → the phrase "Contains non-textile parts of animal origin"
Language	Art. 16(3)	Fibre names must appear in the official language(s) of the Member State where you sell to consumers

The language rule is the trap for marketplace sellers: an English-only "100 % cotton" label does not satisfy Article 16(3) when the buyer is in Germany or France. For multi-country sellers the practical fix is a multilingual sewn-in label, and the fibre breakdown repeated in each localized listing.

Do home textiles need flammability warnings?

There is no general EU-wide flammability law for home textiles — but fire is the hazard your risk assessment cannot skip. The EU has not harmonised flammability requirements for curtains, bedding, or upholstery the way some national regimes have, so no specific EU statute forces a burn test on a cushion cover. That does not make fire risk legally irrelevant: under Article 6 GPSR, product characteristics and foreseeable use determine whether a product is safe, and textiles near candles, stoves, heaters, and cigarettes ignite in entirely foreseeable ways. Common-sense practice for this category:

• "Keep away from open flame / fire" warnings on throws, decorative cushions, and anything marketed for sofa or bed use
• Extra caution with brushed, pile, and fluffy surfaces (fleece, faux fur), which can flash-burn faster than flat weaves
• Never claim "flame retardant" without a test report — an unsupported safety claim is worse than no claim
• Note the fibre behaviour in your risk analysis: composition is already on your label, and it drives how the product burns and melts

Are washing and care instructions legally required?

Care symbols are voluntary in the EU — but instructions become mandatory under GPSR Article 9(7) whenever safe use depends on them. No EU regulation prescribes wash-care labelling for textiles; the familiar symbol system (ISO 3758, administered by GINETEX) is voluntary. GPSR Article 9(7), however, requires products to be accompanied by clear instructions and safety information in a language consumers easily understand — except where the product can be used safely without them. For home textiles, washing crosses into safety information when, for example:

• a flame-retardant or other functional finish degrades with washing — the care instruction preserves a safety property
• filled items (feather cushions, duvets) need specific drying to avoid mould and hygiene problems
• hot washing could detach trims or shrink fitted covers in a way that creates a new hazard

So: include care instructions as good practice on every product, and treat them as legally required the moment safe use depends on them. Document that reasoning in your risk assessment.

What about cords on curtains and blinds?

Looped cords are the most serious hazard in this product category — treat any cord a young child could reach as a strangulation risk. Corded internal blinds and curtain pull-cords have caused child strangulation deaths, and this hazard drives real enforcement and recalls. For internal blinds there is a dedicated European standard, EN 13120 (Internal blinds — Performance requirements including safety). It is a standard, not a law — but following its approach is the practical way to show your product meets the GPSR's general safety requirement. The measures it embodies are exactly what your risk assessment should record:

• prefer cordless designs or cords made inaccessible (enclosed mechanisms, wands)
• limit cord and loop length and fit breakaway connectors that release under a child's weight
• supply cleats or tensioners with instructions to install them and secure cords out of reach
• print a child-strangulation warning on the product and packaging, not only in the listing

The same logic applies to curtain tie-backs and drawstring storage bags sold for children's rooms — no dedicated standard needed to recognise a loop at cot height as a hazard.

Which hazards should your home-textile risk assessment cover?

Work through the category's known failure modes — most home textiles share the same short list. Use this as the hazard-identification section of your risk assessment:

Hazard	Typical products	What can go wrong	Sensible mitigation
Fire / flammability	Curtains, throws, cushions	Ignition near flames or heaters; fast flame spread on pile fabrics	Keep-away-from-flame warning; composition documented; no unproven "FR" claims
Strangulation	Blind cords, tie-backs, drawstrings	Child caught in a loop	Cordless design, breakaway devices, cleats, warnings (EN 13120 approach)
Choking (small parts)	Pom-poms, buttons, beads, tassels	Trim detaches and is swallowed	Pull-test trims; secure stitching; age note for nursery items
Chemical	Dyed and printed fabrics	Restricted azo dyes and other substances (REACH Annex XVII); skin irritation	Supplier declarations or test certificates kept in your file
Suffocation	Packaging	Plastic bag over a child's head	Suffocation warning on bags; perforated packaging
Hygiene	Filled cushions, duvets	Mould, mites in fillings	Care/drying instructions; quality of filling documented

What documents do you need before you list?

A proportionate technical file: product description, fibre composition, risk analysis with mitigations, label artwork, and your traceability details. For a typical home-textile product this is a few pages, not a laboratory dossier — but it must exist before the first EU sale and be kept for 10 years. You can assemble the skeleton in minutes with our free GPSR technical file generator, then attach your fibre labels, supplier declarations, and warning texts.

If you want the full pack — risk assessment, technical file, and the exact safety text to paste into your Etsy, eBay, or Amazon listing fields — run your product through our checker: Generate your GPSR document pack — €14.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.