PRACTICAL GUIDE - Fashion & Design

Milan Fashion Week is coming to an end: What are the new (legislative) trends for 2019?

Fashion design and other design intensive and high-end industries account for 3% of the EU GDP each and employ respectively 5 and 1 million people, with employment in the high-end industries expected to reach 2 million by 2020.

In the light of the important contribution that these sectors can bring to the social and economic development in the EU, the European Commission continuously woks on initiatives to strengthen the competiveness on the market, such as measures to protect intellectual property rights, fight counterfeited goods, and help fashion and design-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access finance and stimulate creativity and innovation, on the one side, and to protect consumer interests as well as the environment, on the other side, im-posing statutory product requirements.

Like the EU regulations, the Member States’ implementing domestic product-related laws apply when a product is placed (“Inverkehrbringen”) or made available (“Bereitstellen”) on the national market, irrespective of the role (manufacturer, importer or distributor) and form (legal or natural person) of the acting economic operator. According to German law, this occurs when a prod-uct is put into circulation on the German market for distribution, consumption or use, requiring the transfer of ownership or possession. This (not mandatorily physical) transfer must take place on the German market. Nevertheless, under certain laws, economic operators bear responsibility already at the earlier time of offering a product.

In Germany, to sell textile products, economic operators must comply with several laws and regulations regarding the following processes and aspects of the trade of fashion and design products:

• manufacture and labelling
• product safety
• product liability
• distribution of textiles: unfair practices and advertising
• consumer protection
• environment protection
• tariffs and taxes
• intellectual property rights.