Portugal becomes fifth European country to set leather law
21/01/2022
The decree defines ‘leather’, ‘full grain leather’, ‘coated leather’ and ‘leather split’. It sets strict requirements for the use of these terms, establishing that the term leather cannot be combined with qualifiers, prefixes or suffixes that contradict the intrinsic nature of leather.
Descriptions involving the term ‘leather’ are to be considered in the labelling, marking and advertising of materials, with the aim of empowering consumers to making informed choices.
Nuno Carvalho, president of Portugal’s national tanning industry body, APIC, said: “With this law, our government acknowledges the strategic importance of leather and leather products for the Portuguese economy and the need for protecting it from deceptive commercial practices.”
Hungary is currently working on a similar legislation, according to European leather body COTANCE, and other countries are considering the same.
COTANCE president Manuel Rios said: “While we absolutely welcome this legal development in Portugal, in COTANCE we were expecting that the European Commission would finally decide to proceed to a long-awaited harmonisation of leather authenticity rules at EU level.”
During the completion of the EU internal market in 1992, the European Commission harmonised national rules on textile denominations and for footwear labelling, but did not for leather. This is currently being corrected with the development of leather authenticity rules at national level, said COTANCE.
Image: Emídio Gonçalves Martins & Filhos, Lda
Share this story:
