Can I use English warnings in a Dutch webshop?

English warnings are not sufficient in a Dutch webshop

For a webshop selling to Dutch consumers, warnings and safety instructions must be in Dutch. English is insufficient, even if the target audience speaks the language well — the law looks at the consumer's language in the country of delivery, not at what that consumer happens to understand. A QR code linking to an English-language or other-language page does not solve this: the information must appear directly on the product page itself.

Who bears this obligation depends on the role in the supply chain. The manufacturer draws up the warnings and is responsible for the correct language version; the distributor — for example a webshop reselling finished products from another party without its own brand — does not have to write that text itself, but does check that the required language is present before the product is offered. This distinction is often missed: whoever sells a product under their own name or brand is themselves considered a manufacturer, even if the product was sourced elsewhere and only bears their own logo. For that seller, preparing the correct language version is indeed their own obligation, not something that falls to another party in the supply chain. For a webshop also delivering to Germany or Belgium, language counts per destination country: German for Germany, and Dutch, French or German depending on the language region in Belgium. Anyone serving multiple countries needs multiple language versions of the same warning.

Where this is stated: Article 9 of GPSR

This requirement follows from Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2023/988, which requires that warnings and safety information be provided in a language understandable to the consumer. Because this is a regulation, this rule applies directly and identically in all 27 member states; what differs from country to country is not the obligation itself but which language is considered the consumer language there.