For Etsy sellers Adding the GARAN-Label and legal guarantee notice on Etsy
An honest guide: most Etsy sellers need the free legal guarantee notice and not the paid GARAN-Label. This page helps you work out which group you are in, and what to do about it within Etsy's limits.
As of 11 September 2026, Etsy offers no dedicated field or feature for the legal guarantee notice or the GARAN-Label that we are aware of. We are not lawyers: this page describes what is technically possible on Etsy today. Whether that is enough to meet the requirement in your case is a question for legal counsel. Check Etsy's seller announcements for changes.
Does this apply to me?
The rules distinguish between commercial sellers and private individuals, not between big and small shops.
Yes, if you sell commercially to consumers
You run the shop as a business, sell regularly and for profit, and ship physical goods to consumers in the EU. Then the legal guarantee notice is mandatory for your listings, exactly as it is for a web shop.
No, if you sell privately
You occasionally sell your own used items or a few pieces made as a hobby, without running a business. Genuinely private sales between individuals are not covered.
Unsure which side you are on? That is a question for your tax or legal adviser, not for us. A rough indicator: if Etsy treats you as a business seller and you charge VAT or file business taxes, the rules most likely apply.
The handmade nuance: you are probably the producer
On most platforms the retailer displays a label that the producer created. On Etsy the two roles usually collapse: the maker who sews, turns, prints or casts the item is the producer. That makes you the party who could issue a GARAN-Label. But "could" is the operative word.
The GARAN-Label is only required if you offer a free commercial guarantee of durability that covers the whole product for more than two years. A "made with love, contact me if anything breaks" line is not such a guarantee. Most makers offer nothing of the kind, and that is perfectly fine.
Plainly: if you do not promise a guarantee of more than two years, you need the free notice and nothing else. You do not need to buy anything from us. Download the legal guarantee notice for free →
If you do promise such a guarantee, for example on furniture, leather goods or jewellery, you need the GARAN-Label for those items and you must provide the guarantee terms in writing. The difference between the two labels →
Etsy's real constraints
Etsy gives you far less control over a listing than a shop system does. What you have, and what you do not:
| Surface | What it accepts | Useful for |
|---|---|---|
| Listing description | Plain text. No HTML, no images, no external links. | Guarantee terms in words, a sentence pointing to the label photo. |
| Listing photos | Up to ten images per listing. | The only place on the listing page that shows an image, so the only workable spot for notice or label today. Better than nothing, probably not sufficient on its own. |
| Shop policies | Structured text fields. | Guarantee terms, return and repair conditions. |
| About section and shop banner | Images and text, shop-wide. | The notice at shop level. Not a substitute for the listing. |
| Theme, metafields, custom fields | Not available. | Nothing. There is no code-level route on Etsy. |
Be clear about what this is: the best you can do on Etsy right now, not a clean solution. For Shopify or Magento we advise against the image gallery because those platforms offer a proper information area. Etsy leaves no other image surface on the listing page, so the notice or label ends up as the last photo, never the first, with a line in the description saying what it is, plus a printed copy of the notice in the parcel. A label hidden among product photos is better than no label, but it probably does not meet the requirement in full. Until Etsy provides a proper place, that gap remains, and it is Etsy's to close.
Practical workflow for a small shop
- Notice: download the legal guarantee notice as PNG in the language of your main market. One file, used in every listing.
- Label, only if you qualify: create a free account, enter brand, model and guarantee duration, download the PNG. Keep the file: hosted labels are archived 30 days after generation.
- Per listing: add the image as the last photo, the workable option described above. Add one line to the description, for example "Last photo: EU legal guarantee notice. Guarantee terms in our shop policies."
- Shop policies: write out the guarantee terms if you offer a guarantee: duration, what is covered, how to claim.
- In the parcel: include the notice as a printed insert. For the GARAN-Label an A4 PDF for your own printer exists.
Hundreds of listings? A note on scale
Etsy has no CSV import for listing photos, so adding an image to each listing is a per-listing job in the listing manager, or a task for one of the third-party listing tools that support bulk photo edits. For the notice that is one image repeated. For the GARAN-Label you first need one label per model, and that part you can do in bulk: upload a CSV with brand, model and duration and download all labels at once. How the bulk run works →
Selling across borders: which language for the notice
Etsy translates your text, not your images. The legal guarantee notice exists in all 24 official EU languages and must be used unchanged, so pick the language of the market you mainly sell to. If you sell to several EU countries, use the language of your largest market and consider a second notice image for the second one. The GARAN-Label needs no translation: brand, model and duration read the same everywhere.
Start with the free notice
Official EU template, all 24 languages, PNG and print-ready PDF. No account needed.
Download the legal guarantee noticeOffering a guarantee over two years? Try the GARAN-Label in sandbox mode →
Also selling on eBay or Amazon? Guide for eBay → Guide for Amazon →
Frequently asked questions about Etsy
I sell vintage or second-hand items on Etsy. Does this apply to me?
As far as we understand the rules, the legal guarantee notice applies to used goods too if you sell commercially to consumers. The GARAN-Label does not, unless you as the producer offer a free guarantee of more than two years, which is rare for vintage. When in doubt, ask a lawyer.
Do digital downloads need the notice or the label?
No. Both apply to physical goods only. Printables, digital patterns and other downloads are out of scope.
I use print on demand. A third party manufactures my products. Am I the producer?
The EU sale of goods rules treat anyone who puts their name or brand on the goods as a producer. Whether that covers your print-on-demand setup is a question for a lawyer. It only matters if you offer a free guarantee of more than two years; otherwise the free notice is all you need.
I only ship to buyers outside the EU. Do I still need anything?
The rules protect consumers in the EU. If you do not offer your items to EU consumers at all, they do not apply to those sales. If you ship to even one EU country, they do.
Can I put the GARAN-Label in the listing description instead of a photo?
Etsy listing descriptions are plain text. They accept neither images nor HTML nor external links, so the label graphic cannot go there. The description is the right place for the guarantee terms in words, next to the label in the photos.