GPSR Language Requirements: Which Language for Warnings and Instructions in Each EU Country

What the GPSR actually says about language

There is no single 'language article' in the GPSR. The requirement appears in several economic operator obligations:

On the platform side, Article 22(9)(d) requires online marketplaces to design their interface so traders can provide these warnings and safety information in the right language. The platform supplies the field; the seller remains responsible for what goes in it.

Do not confuse this with a different language duty. Article 10(2)(a) requires an authorised representative to give market surveillance authorities, on reasoned request, the information needed to show the product is safe in an official language the authority understands. That is about documents for regulators, not the leaflet in the box.

What 'as determined by the Member State' means in practice

The GPSR does not list languages country by country. It leaves the choice to each Member State, so the detailed rule sits in national law: a product safety act, consumer protection law or a dedicated language law. France is the classic example: Article 2 of Law No 94-665 of 4 August 1994 (the 'Toubon law') makes French mandatory for the designation, offer, presentation, instructions for use and description of the warranty of goods.

Most countries in practice require their official language(s). Take extra care with Member States that have more than one:

• Belgium: Dutch, French and German;
• Luxembourg: Luxembourgish, French and German;
• Finland: Finnish and Swedish;
• Ireland and Malta: English is one of the official languages, alongside Irish and Maltese respectively.

Whether such a country requires all its official languages, one of them, or different ones by region is a question for its current national rules. We deliberately do not publish a per-country table: national rules change and can differ by product category. Check each country you ship to, or ask someone who knows the local rules.

The other question is which country counts. The GPSR looks at where the product is made available on the market. For online sales, recital 21 calls for a case-by-case check of whether the offer targets consumers in a Member State, looking at delivery areas, the languages used for the offer or ordering, payment methods, and the use of a national currency or domain. In practice the buyer's country drives the language, not where your company, factory or warehouse is. Stock held in Germany and sold to a consumer in France needs French.

English is not an EU-wide fallback. Outside Ireland and Malta, English-only warnings will rarely meet the rule.

What has to be translated, and what usually does not

Not every word on the box needs translating. The legal text targets instructions and safety information, plus the warnings shown online:

Use the Article 9(7) exemption sparingly: it applies only where the product can be used safely and as intended without instructions and safety information. The Commission's business guidelines (C/2025/6233; guidelines are interpretation, not the law) give knives, whose risks are well known, as an example. Electronics, children's products, flat-pack furniture and anything with batteries or heating elements will almost never qualify.

For the identity information a label must carry, see GPSR label requirements; for what a listing must show, see online selling requirements.

Toys, electrical equipment and cosmetics: sector language rules

Under Article 2(1)(b), for products subject to Union harmonisation legislation, Chapter III Section 1 of the GPSR (Articles 9–18, including Articles 9(7) and 11(4)) does not apply; the language rule for instructions and warnings comes from the sector law. Article 19 sits in Section 2, so it still applies and online warnings must still be in the local language. The main examples:

Most other CE-marking laws, such as the radio equipment rules, contain similar wording; check the text of the law that actually applies to your product. Category detail is in our toys, electronics and cosmetics white papers.

Can pictograms replace text?

Articles 9(7) and 19 ask for a language. Nothing in the GPSR says pictograms alone satisfy that, and the Commission's guidelines offer no such exception. At GPSR level the safe approach is symbol plus text, not a row of icons instead of translations.

Sector laws allow symbols in a few defined places, but usually still need words:

• Toys: Annex V Part B point 1 lets you use the prescribed graphic for 'not suitable for children under 36 months', but it must come with a brief indication of the specific hazard (for example small parts), which may sit in the instructions and must be translated. The warnings in points 2 to 10 must be used 'as worded', so take the official wording from each language version of the Directive rather than paraphrasing.
• Cosmetics: the Annex VII open-jar (period after opening) and hourglass (durability) symbols replace words. Where precautions cannot practically go on the container or pack, they may go on an enclosed leaflet or tag, signposted by the Annex VII point 1 symbol (Art. 19(2)), but that leaflet text is still subject to the language rule.

International safety signs, such as the ISO 7010 series, help consumers recognise hazards across languages and save space, but keep short translated text next to critical warnings such as choking, electric shock, hot surfaces and adult supervision.

Selling in several countries: Amazon EU stores, Pan-EU and other platforms

Language follows the country of sale, so every new market adds a language. Typical situations:

• One ASIN on several Amazon EU stores: Amazon runs country stores in Europe. If the same product is live in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, each store's country rules apply.
• Where the physical unit ends up: with cross-border inventory and fulfilment arrangements such as Pan-European FBA, stock may be placed in fulfilment centres in several countries and you usually cannot control which unit reaches which buyer. Packaging and leaflets should therefore cover every country the batch may be sold into. Separate language packs (say, a German-language pack and a French-language pack) only work if you can control where the goods go; see FBA vs FBM under the GPSR.
• Online information: each store's listing must show warnings and safety information in that country's language (Art. 19). For what Amazon currently asks you to upload, follow Seller Central's current help pages, which change over time, and our deactivation recovery guide.
• Temu, TikTok Shop and your own shop: same logic. The countries your shop delivers to and the languages it offers are targeting factors, and every language version of a page needs warnings in that language.

When space is tight, a common layout is: key warnings side by side in all languages on the pack, full instructions in a multilingual fold-out leaflet, and a QR code for the digital version as an extra (never a replacement, see QR codes and digital labels).

Translation workflow that holds up

Most language problems come from execution rather than misreading the law. A workflow that avoids rework:

1. Freeze the source text first. Have product and compliance owners sign off the Chinese or English source before translation; when it changes, update every language.
2. Keep a master file. One sheet with every warning and instruction, numbered, with source text and each translation, version number, models covered and first batch.
3. Professional translation plus native review. Use translators who know the product field, then a native-speaker check. Machine translation is a first draft at most: a garbled warning is a safety issue and very visible to inspectors and customers.
4. Use prescribed wording where it exists. If a sector law or harmonised standard fixes warning text, use its official wording in each language.
5. One text everywhere. Packaging, manual, listing and QR page should use the same approved translation.
6. Check fonts and characters. German ä, ö, ü, ß; French é, ç; Polish ł, ą; Czech ř, ž; Greek and Bulgarian Cyrillic must render correctly. Have a native speaker review the print-ready PDF proof, not just the Word file.
7. Mark languages. Separate leaflet sections with codes such as DE, FR, IT, ES so buyers find their language.
8. File it. Keep translations, proofs and product photos with your technical documentation for inspections and platform reviews.

Not sure what else your product is missing? Try the three-step compliance check.