Most retail furniture is unlikely to be affected by a change in EU textile labelling regulations.
EU regulation 1007/2011 is due to come into force on May 8th 2012, and will see several existing UK regulations on indicating fibre content in textile products withdrawn to make way for it.
The new regulation is broadly similar to those it replaces, while the procedure for naming new fibres has been simplified and sped up.
For most retail furniture, however, there will be little or no change in terms of labelling, so customers should not see any significant disruption during the transition period.
Only items made of more than 80% textiles by weight must be labelled according to the new rules - including products such as mattresses and some camping goods.
FIRA, the Furniture Industry Research Association, says it has spoken to the government about the rules and that the 80% threshold is to remain in place when the new regulation is launched.
In many cases, cafe furniture is made solely of metal, while pub furniture is frequently made from 100% wood, meaning both categories should be left unaffected by the change.
Other cafe and pub furniture should still be subject to broadly the same rules, provided that its textile element does not account for more than four fifths of its total weight.