Biocide advertising rules: what Article 72 asks of sellers

Every web shop listing, shelf card and sales sheet for an insect repellent counts as an advertisement for a biocidal product. This article explains the biocide advertising rules in Article 72 of the EU Biocidal Products Regulation, and what distributors and retailers should check before copy goes live.

Biocide advertising rules in Article 72

The Biocidal Products Regulation, (EU) No 528/2012 or BPR, sets out its advertising rules in Article 72. They apply in every EU member state and, through the EEA Agreement, in Norway. Great Britain kept the same article in its own version of the regulation.

The first paragraph asks for two set sentences in every advertisement: one asking the reader to use biocides with care, and one asking them to always read the label and product information before use. They have to be clearly distinguishable and legible within the whole advertisement.

Advertisers may replace the word biocides in those sentences with a clear reference to the product type, such as repellents.

The third paragraph sets the limits. An advertisement must not mislead about the product's risks to human health, animal health or the environment, or about its efficacy.

It then names six descriptions that may never appear, from low-risk biocidal product to wording that calls a product kind to animals or to the environment, and closes with the words: or any similar indication.

What counts as an advertisement

Article 3 of the BPR defines an advertisement as a means of promoting the sale or use of biocidal products by printed, electronic or other media. That reaches well beyond a printed advert.

In practice it covers a product page in a web shop, a marketplace listing, a social media post, a newsletter, a shelf card, a display unit, a trade catalogue and a sales sheet sent to a buyer.

Label wording sits under a separate article, Article 69, which sets a similar standard for the pack itself. A retailer who copies text from the pack into a listing still has to check that listing against Article 72.

Similar indications: the skin-friendly ruling

The closing words of Article 72(3) have been tested in court. In case C-296/23, decided on 20 June 2024, the Court of Justice of the EU looked at a disinfectant sold by a German drugstore chain and advertised as skin-friendly.

The Court read the words similar indication broadly. Any statement that presents the risks of a biocidal product in a misleading way, by playing them down or denying them, is caught, whether it is general or specific.

In October 2024 the German Federal Court of Justice applied the ruling and held that the description was prohibited without proof that it misled anyone in that case.

For sellers the lesson is plain. The six listed descriptions are examples, not the whole list. Any adjective that suggests a biocidal product carries no risk belongs in the same category, in every language.

A checklist for biocide advertising in web shops

Before a listing, post or sales sheet for a repellent goes live, check these points.

• The two set sentences appear in the language of the market, and a reader can find and read them.
• The product type is right: a repellent keeps insects away and is not described as something that clears an infestation.
• No word in the title, tagline, product name, image text or hashtags plays down the risks of the product.
• Efficacy statements match the approved wording for that market, word for word, including any period of effect.
• Nothing suggests that an authority has endorsed the product. A notification tells the authority the product exists; it is not an authorisation.
• Translated copy is checked again. A neutral word in one language can become a risk-softening word in another.
• A record shows which version of the text was approved, and when.

How Affix Labs supplies approved product texts

Affix Labs Netherlands B.V. keeps one approved set of product statements per market. Our own pages show those statements as they are, and the same set goes to partners, so a distributor does not have to write efficacy or regulatory wording from scratch.

For white label partners the same applies. The partner chooses the name and the design; the regulated statements come from the approved set for each market.

Distributors and retailers who want the approved product texts for their market can ask through the Partners page on affixlabs.com.