What's the Law on Clothes Labelling?

When you look at clothes in a shop, the most important label that most of us - well, women anyway, are interested in is the size label. If you've heard of the term 'vanity sizing' you might already have an inkling that as far as the sizes of our clothes and shoes are concerned, there are no hard and fast rules that govern what a size 12 or 22 are. There's in fact nothing to stop a retailer from labelling all their size 16 dresses as a size 12 if they so choose.

There is an organisation called Size UK in the UK that's been campaigning for standardisation of clothes sizes but as yet there's been nothing hard and fast agreed. Some of the bigger names in the high street fashion market have signed up to be part of the campaign but it's been suspiciously quiet in recent years.

There are some EU guidelines that cover clothes labelling and sizing - these are: EN 13402-1:2001, EN 13402-2:2002 and EN 13402-3:2004. They also try and set common standards for clothes sizing but are just guidelines so not legally binding. Different countries have different sizing too - European sizes, UK sizes and US/Canada sizes are all differently named. Add to that the whole Small, Medium, Large, XL, XXL etc and you can imagine what a difficult job it would be to enforce a common size across all retailers in just the UK. This is quite possibly why nobody has ever seriously tried...

Misleading Clothes Labels

The law does still apply to clothes labels in some respects, and it's still part of the Sale and Supply of Goods Act that clothes must be 'as described'. So, although the manufacturers and retailers can't yet be accused of misdescribing an item on account of its size - because there are no legal definitions for clothes sizes, they can still be held to account if they describe an item as being '100% silk' if it isn't.

If you buy an item and suspect that it isn't as described, you do have every right to ask for your money back. The only issue of course is proving that the label is incorrect, as a suspicion that the fabric is wrongly described isn't really enough to go on when trying to reject an item. You have to be able to show that the description is wrong.

Washing Instructions on Clothes Labels

This is another area that can cause consternation with clothes and fabrics. If you purchase an item of clothing on the basis that it's machine washable, but when you wash it faithfully according to the instructions, it comes out of the washing machine looking like a little screwed up rag, you could be well within your rights to march back to the shop and point out that the care instructions are clearly incorrect and you would like a refund or a replacement. This strategy is only likely to be effective if you absolutely did wash the item as instructed, and it was the first wash.

Most retailers will err on the customer's side and give a refund, exchange or credit note just for the sake of customer relations, but make sure you have some proof of purchase to back your case. The Sale and Supply of Goods Act applies here too in that the care instructions on a label are considered part of the description, and so if the item is described as being suitable for dry cleaning (or any other method of cleaning) it should be. Your only issue is likely to be proving that you followed the instructions properly.