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I have noticed that while user guides, info booklets, stickers, etc. for many goods sold in EU contain information in many languages, this time and another I find that English is not amongst them (at least if we are talking about languages of large European countries).

On one hand, it is understandable given the fact the UK ceased to be a part of EU. But Ireland remains a full EU member state and it is an English-speaking country (not only English, officially, but I am yet to see any instruction in Irish, either).

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    Are they actively marketing the product in the UK or Ireland?
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 12 at 17:17
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    Seems like a valid Q. For many people, if you're unlucky not to have instructions printed in your native language, English can be a useful alternative. Asking how its presence or absence can be explained, possibly as it relates to Brexit, is not unreasonable. It's not like the EU lacks in regulatory ardor in many things.
    – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
    Commented Aug 12 at 21:06
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    Off topic. The OP doesn't seem to think this is due to political factors or mention any legal or political issues, or ask a political question. You could maybe rephrase this to be a political question, but currently it isn't. ("Why do lots of people speak English?" vs "What governments require English to be used?") In the UK goods have a wide range of langauges, but prior to Brexit many did not carry all EU language: often the UK would get a few languages of nearby countries, sometimes northern Europe, sometimes western Europe, sometimes very random. This seems to have continued.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 13 at 13:24
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    Can you give examples? I haven't seen anything not including english for years... Maybe you are unlucky or its just some manufacturer or class of product?
    – PlasmaHH
    Commented Aug 15 at 15:11
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    I observe you usually have labels with a few (3-5) languages, because simply text for 10 or 20 languages wouldn't fit into a piece of paper of reasonable size. I imagine some companies have a few sets of these 3-5 languages, and one of the sets might contain English.
    – Grzegorz Oledzki
    Commented Aug 15 at 20:20

3 Answers 3

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There's no EU law or regulation that says you must print instructions in all the languages of the Union if you only sell in a few countries thereof. It would add a lot overhead for some businesses. E.g. IKEA in the EU mostly has pictorial documentation, with very little wording except something about recycling in extremely tiny print. That bit is in all the union languages AFAICT, but whether even having that printed in all the languages is mandatory, I'm not entirely sure.

E.g. the General Product Safety Regulation:

Article 9

  1. Manufacturers shall ensure that their product is accompanied by clear instructions and safety information in a language which can be easily understood by consumers, as determined by the Member State in which the product is made available on the market. That requirement shall not apply where the product can be used safely and as intended by the manufacturer without such instructions and safety information.
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  • "That bit is in all the union languages AFAICT": the instruction sheet I am looking at now appears to have languages of all countries in which Ikea does business, including several in Asia. If all official EU languages are included it is likely because Ikea operates in every EU country, or at least in enough of them to cover all the official languages.
    – phoog
    Commented Aug 22 at 21:31
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I suspect this isn't political, but practical / electrical.

For electrical appliances, I suspect this is actually to do with power connectors. Almost all of Europe (everywhere except UK, Ireland, Malta an Cyprus) uses Type C power connectors. The UK and Ireland (along with Malta and I think Cyprus) use Type G power connectors. So appliance manufacturers are going to need two SKUs in any case. They might as well package them with a different manual. (Malta and Cyprus are not huge markets, but English is the joint official language of Malta in any case).

For non-electrical goods, it's possible that they have 2 (or more) sets of manuals, one for non-English speaking Europe, and one for the English speaking world.

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  • "So appliance manufacturers are going to need two SKUs in any case." For big appliances yes, for most electronics no. If they don't need the 3rd pin [grounding] it's fairly common to see a [switching] power adapter with faceplates for UK/DE. Those just slide over.
    – Make StackExchange GREAT 4ever
    Commented Aug 15 at 2:18
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It is not unreasonable to sell the product with instructions in English, Welsh and Gaelic in the Uk and Ireland, and a bigger book in 26 languages everywhere else. Saving a bit of money. Brexit may have been the trigger for the decision.

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    This is not an answer to the question. It doesn't ask if it is reasonable to only use English, but if it is reasonable to not use English. It also asks for within the EU.
    – Ross Millikan
    Commented Aug 13 at 2:43
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    @RossMillikan that is answered by the "and a bigger book in 26 languages everywhere else" part of the answer. Those 26 languages exclude English. One could argue that it is not extremely convincing (why not save more money by having books with only one language in each country, or any other grouping of the languages), but it is an answer.
    – wimi
    Commented Aug 13 at 7:27
  • The "bigger book in 26 languages" can be quite a burden for the mfg. I know of enough products sold in the German speaking ("DACH") space that certainly don't come with with it. If don't believe me, here's some random complaint on reddit (DV-ed of course, since it was posted in r/germany reddit.com/r/germany/comments/ro9jav/…)
    – Make StackExchange GREAT 4ever
    Commented Aug 13 at 8:24
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    I believe the point is that English is a common second language. At least anecdotally, a Polish, German and french person in a room will first try English as a method of communication. So the question is, if you're trying to cover all bases, why not include English?
    – Lio Elbammalf
    Commented Aug 13 at 8:55
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    @LioElbammalf The goal is not to "cover all bases" in terms of being able to reach the highest percentage of consumers including those who only speak niche languages; the goal is to make the product legal to sell in a given market. Many (most?) EU countries have laws that mandate instruction manuals (especially safety instructions) in the official language of the country, and the law often does not care whether or not English is included.
    – TooTea
    Commented Aug 13 at 10:42

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