Product labels: Everything you need to know about the rules of the game for traders

You have a fantastic product and you are ready to launch it on the market! Great! But before you fill the store shelves, we need to take care of some administrative things to make everything run smoothly.

What is a product declaration - your road map to happiness!

The current trade law in Republic of Serbia (as of July 30, 2019) requires that all products on sale have a product label. What does this mean for you as a marketer? This means that you should make sure that the products you purchase have all the necessary information.

What should the declaration contain?

The declaration is like an identity card of your product and should contain all important information:

• What is that? Name and type of product (eg men's running shoes)
• What is the model? A specific model or type (eg model XYZ)
• How many? Quantity expressed in standard units of measure (eg piece or pair)
• Who produced/imported? Name of the manufacturer (or importer for imported goods) and mandatory country of origin
• Language and script? All information must be clear, visible and in the Serbian language (Cyrillic or Latin). As much as the law leaves room for making the text too small and illegible, control authorities have their own mechanisms to prevent this. Our advice is: let the text be small, but it must be legible.

What should the product label look like in application?

The manufacturer or importer should take care of the correct information, but you as a trader are responsible for checking it when purchasing. The product label in the form of a self-adhesive label or sticker can be displayed in several ways:

• Directly on the product or packaging (label, sticker, wrapper)
• Next to the product at the point of sale (so that it is easily visible to consumers)
• In a catalog or promotional material which is available to customers at the point of sale
• For online stores: information must be easily accessible to customers before purchasing

Machine readable labels - The future is digital!

As of January 31, 2020, products must also have a machine-readable label (such as a Bar code or QR code ). This enables fast and efficient scanning at the point of sale.

Don't forget about the specific regulations!

In addition to general requirements, there may be extremely important additional regulations for declaring certain products (eg food products). Declarations on food products provide numerous useful information to consumers, such as energy value, composition (including allergens), etc.

Happy selling!

With a little attention to the declarations, your fantastic products will quickly find themselves on store shelves, and the information on the declarations will allow consumers to make smart purchases. It will be our pleasure to help you along the way.