Before your product can legally be sold in India — in a physical store, on Amazon, through your own website, or anywhere else — the packaging has to carry specific information mandated by law. Not recommended. Not best practice. Required by law, with penalties for non-compliance.
The governing framework is the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, which sit under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, overseen by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). These rules apply to every pre-packaged product sold or distributed in India — domestic or imported, physical or ecommerce channel.
Amazon and Flipkart both verify packaging compliance during their seller onboarding process for certain categories. Listings can be rejected or removed for non-compliant labelling. For food products, there’s an additional layer — FSSAI regulations, covered in Topic 6.
This guide covers everything that must be on your packaging, category-specific extras, what constitutes a common violation, and how to design your label so it’s both compliant and well-branded.
The Mandatory Declarations — Every Pre-Packaged Product
Under Rule 6 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, every pre-packaged commodity must carry these declarations:
1. Name and Address of the Manufacturer / Packer / Importer
The complete name and principal place of business address of:
- The manufacturer (if manufactured in India)
- The packer (if different from manufacturer)
- The importer (for imported goods)
For a sole proprietor: your name and the complete business address registered with your GSTIN.
What “complete” means: full address including Pin code. Not just city or state — the full street-level address.
What many new brands miss: the address on your packaging must match the address registered with your GST certificate. Any mismatch creates a documentation inconsistency that can be flagged during inspection or marketplace review.
2. Common or Generic Name of the Product
The product must be identified by its common name — what it actually is in plain language that an average consumer would recognize.
This requirement exists to prevent misleading branding. If you’re selling “Vitamin C Effervescent Tablets” under the brand name “SunPower,” the label must include “Effervescent Tablets” or “Vitamin C Supplement” as the generic/common name — not just the brand name.
3. Net Quantity
The actual amount of product contained in the package — expressed in the appropriate legal unit:
- Weight: grams (g) or kilograms (kg) for solid products
- Volume: millilitres (ml) or litres (l) for liquids
- Count: number of units for countable items
What’s not acceptable: “approximately 500g,” “large size,” “generous portion,” or any vague descriptor. The declaration must be exact and in the prescribed unit.
Tolerances: the Rules specify allowable tolerances (the permitted deviation from the declared quantity) by weight/volume range — staying within these tolerances is a manufacturing/packaging compliance matter, but stating an incorrect declared quantity is a separate legal violation.
4. Month and Year of Manufacture / Packing
The month and year when the product was manufactured or packed. Format: “Mfg: Month Year” or the full date if month-level precision is preferred.
5. “Best Before” or “Expiry” Date (where applicable)
For any product that can deteriorate with time — food, beverages, cosmetics, supplements, certain personal care items — a “Best Before” or “Use By” date must be declared.
“Best Before” means the product is at its best quality before that date — it may still be safe to use after, but quality isn’t guaranteed.
“Expiry” or “Use By” means the product should not be used after that date — stricter and typically used for products where post-date use is unsafe.
For products with a shelf life of less than 3 months, a “date of manufacture” may be required in addition.
6. Maximum Retail Price (MRP) — Inclusive of All Taxes
The MRP must be declared in the format: MRP ₹[amount] (inclusive of all taxes)
Critical rules around MRP:
- MRP on packaging is a legal ceiling — selling above this price is a punishable offense under the Legal Metrology Act
- The MRP on your packaging must match the MRP declared in your marketplace listings — mismatches are a common cause of listing suspension on Amazon and Flipkart
- If you need to change MRP (price increase or decrease), you must either reprint/resticker packaging with the new MRP or apply a correction sticker over the old one — the correction sticker cannot obscure any other mandatory declaration
- For products sold through FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon), Amazon often prints its own sticker over your MRP area if the MRP on the system doesn’t match the packaging — get this right from the start to avoid complications
7. Customer Care Details
A contact point for consumer grievances — either a phone number or email address. This is mandatory and frequently missed by new brands whose packaging is designed without this in mind.
The detail just needs to be functional — a dedicated customer support number or email that actually gets monitored is sufficient.
8. Country of Origin
For all products: “Made in India” (or the appropriate country of manufacture). For imported products, this is particularly important and is enforced actively.
Category-Specific Requirements
Beyond the universal requirements above, specific product categories have additional labelling obligations:
Food and Beverages (FSSAI Regulations)
In addition to Legal Metrology requirements, food products must also comply with Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations:
- Nutritional information table (for most packaged foods) — calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, and dietary fibre per 100g/ml and per serving
- Ingredients list — in descending order of weight, with additives identified by their class name and INS/E number
- Allergen declarations — if the product contains any of the 8 major allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans), it must be clearly declared
- FSSAI License Number — the 14-digit FSSAI number must appear on every food product label (see Topic 6)
- Vegetarian / Non-Vegetarian symbol — the green circle (vegetarian) or brown/red circle (non-vegetarian) symbol is mandatory on all packaged food
Cosmetics and Personal Care
- Ingredient list in INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) names
- Directions for use and precautions
- For imported cosmetics: importer details + country of origin
Electronics and Electrical Products
- BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification mark — mandatory for notified categories (certain wires, cables, LED products, IT equipment, helmets, etc.)
- ISI mark where applicable
- Energy star rating for applicable appliances
Textiles
- Fibre content declaration (percentage of each fibre by weight)
- “Dry Clean Only,” “Machine Wash,” or other care instructions
- Country of origin
The MRP Correction Sticker — Rules and Limits
The Rules permit a correction sticker to revise MRP on already-printed packaging under specific conditions:
- The sticker must not conceal any other mandatory declaration
- The original MRP must still be visible (struck through or visible beneath the sticker)
- The sticker must use the same declaration format as the original
This is commonly used for price revisions after a product has been launched — when reprinting packaging isn’t practical for existing inventory.
What correction stickers cannot do: revise net quantity, change manufacture date, or alter any other mandatory declaration. Only MRP revision is permitted through stickers under the Rules.
Designing Your Label for Both Compliance and Brand Impact
A common concern for new brands is that legal declarations will dominate the label and undermine the visual design. In practice, with good label layout, compliance and aesthetics coexist cleanly:
Primary face (front of pack): brand name, product name, generic name, and variant/flavour. This is your branding surface — your logo, your hero image, your most prominent visual.
Back and sides: mandatory declarations. Net quantity, MRP, manufacturer address, manufacture date, best before date, customer care, country of origin, and any category-specific requirements.
Bottom of pack: often used for batch number and additional product codes.
Typography on declarations: mandatory declarations need to be legible — the Rules specify minimum font heights for net quantity and MRP declarations. Generally, 1mm minimum height for net quantity on packs under 200g/200ml; 2mm for larger packs. Don’t make declaration text illegible to save space.
Common Violations — and What They Cost
| Violation | Maximum Penalty |
|---|---|
| Missing mandatory declaration | Fine per unit + seizure |
| MRP not declared or incorrect format | Fine up to ₹1,00,000 |
| Selling above MRP | Fine up to ₹1,00,000 |
| Net quantity violation | Fine up to ₹25,000 |
| Misleading declaration | Fine up to ₹50,000 |
| Repeat violation | Increased penalty + prosecution |
Beyond fines, marketplace listing removal for non-compliant products is an immediate operational consequence — and relabelling or reprinting thousands of units is expensive. Getting it right before your first print run is dramatically cheaper than correcting it after.
Legal Metrology compliance isn’t a final step — it’s a prerequisite. Design your packaging with all mandatory declarations planned from the start, not retrofitted after the visual design is complete. Get a pre-print compliance review from a CA or legal metrology consultant before going to bulk print — the cost of correction after printing thousands of units is many times the cost of getting it right upfront.
Next step: With compliance understood, read our guide on How to Design Packaging That Builds Brand Recall to learn how to make your legally compliant packaging also visually effective.
