In this legal circular we shall address the obligations of sellers in relation to the labelling of goods. First of all, it must be said that there are many legal regulations governing the labelling of goods (in particular European ones, and accordingly Czech legislation is also diverse), which differ primarily depending on the nature of the goods being sold. European regulations separately govern in particular the labelling of foodstuffs including spirits, footwear and textiles, tobacco products and dangerous substances. These are therefore products in respect of which it has been necessary to adopt stricter legislation, in particular for reasons of consumer protection. Given the extensive scope of the legislation, in this legal circular we shall address matters at a more general level, with reference to certain specific cases.

Within Czech legislation, the labelling of products is governed primarily by the provision of Section 10 of the Act on Consumer Protection. Pursuant to this provision, a seller must ensure that the products he sells are directly, visibly and comprehensibly labelled with the designation of the manufacturer or importer, or supplier, as the case may be, and if required by the nature of the product or the form of sale, then also with the name of the product, information on weight, quantity or size, or dimensions, as the case may be, and other information necessary according to the nature of the product for its identification, or use, as the case may be.

Furthermore, the seller must describe the main characteristics of the goods being sold, the manner of its use and maintenance, and also inform of the dangers arising from incorrect use or maintenance of the goods. The seller must also state the price of the goods; however, the question of stating prices is also addressed in greater detail by further regulation. The Act on Consumer Protection also enables the seller to provide all the above-mentioned information to the consumer also in the form of symbols (pictograms). However, these must be comprehensible, legible and complete. The seller is then obliged, upon request, to explain or appropriately make accessible to the consumer the meaning of these pictograms. We emphasise that all these obligations concern sellers both in sales in brick-and-mortar shops and in sales in e-shops.

Although the legislation in this regard is not entirely unambiguous, we are of the opinion that the consumer must be informed of the above-mentioned facts before conclusion of the contract of sale. All information required by law should therefore also be stated on websites containing an offer for the sale of goods, notwithstanding that it is available, for example, on the packaging of the goods. In the case of an on-line purchase, the consumer does not have the opportunity to familiarise himself with the packaging of the goods before purchasing it, and therefore he would lack essential information for making a qualified decision on the purchase.

In the case of certain types of goods, the Act on Consumer Protection then establishes further obligations; for example, footwear must be labelled with information on the materials used in their main parts; the designation ‘crystal’ may then be used to label only products which satisfy the requirements laid down by an implementing legal regulation.

We are of the view that many sellers may also be importers of goods, i.e. traders who place on the market a product from another Member State of the European Union. We therefore permit ourselves to draw attention to the fact that such sellers/importers will, pursuant to a Government Regulation, in connection with the sale/import of certain electrical equipment, also be subject to the obligation to affix the CE marking on the electrical equipment. Furthermore, such traders are obliged to state their name and surname, business name, name or trade mark, if it is possible to identify them unambiguously by it, and furthermore the address of a place at which they may be contacted. If the nature or dimensions of the product do not permit this, he may state this information on the packaging or in a document accompanying the electrical equipment. In this connection we add that the same obligation applies in relation to electrical equipment also to manufacturers. A distributor, i.e. a natural or legal person in the supply chain other than the manufacturer and importer, who supplies the product on the market, must then, before supply on the market, inter alia verify that these obligations have been fulfilled by the manufacturer and importer. In the contrary case, the distributor should ensure that the necessary corrective measures are taken, and until that time withdraw the product from sale.

Finally, we further draw attention to the fact that the designation of the manufacturer, importer or supplier should be such that it does not fulfil the characteristics of misleading commercial practices pursuant to the provisions of Sections 5 and 5a of the Act on Consumer Protection. Therefore the manufacturer, importer or supplier should be designated in such a way that it is not interchangeable with another, i.e. sufficiently specifically. We further draw attention to the fact that the seller must not remove or alter the labelling of products or other information stated by the manufacturer, importer or supplier. If therefore it is stated on the goods, for example by the manufacturer, that this manufacturer has manufactured this product, then this information may not be removed and the designation of the manufacturer on the product replaced with the designation of the importer or supplier.

Hana Drdová

This text was originally prepared by the law firm Mašek, Kočí, Aujezdský in cooperation with the association Association for Electronic Commerce (APEK) as legal circular No. 01/2024 intended for members of this association.

This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.