EU & UK readiness checklist

Uisce gives you a set of EU-aware storefront surfaces — a footer policy row, country and language selectors, unit pricing, a newsletter consent line, a withdrawal-request link, and a legal-information block — that make a store easier to set up for shoppers in Ireland, the EU, and the UK.

This page is the one place to turn those surfaces on in the right order, and — just as importantly — to be clear about where the theme stops. Uisce presents information; it does not determine your legal obligations. Tax calculation, checkout payment eligibility, invoicing, and the legal correctness of your policies are handled in Shopify admin, by apps, or by you and your advisers — never by the theme.

This is not a compliance product, and "ready" is not "compliant." A theme cannot make a store legally compliant. Use this checklist to configure the surfaces well, then confirm your actual obligations with the official sources and a professional where it matters.

• Start here: who does what
• The launch checklist
  • 1 · Storefront surfaces (theme editor)
  • 2 · Settings & pages (Shopify admin)
  • 3 · Confirm with the official sources (you + your advisers)
• Wording, in one rule
• Where to go next
• What this checklist is — and is not

Start here: who does what

Three different parties own three different jobs. Keeping them straight is what keeps your storefront wording honest.

	Owns	Examples
The theme (Uisce)	Display surfaces	Footer policy row, country/language selectors, unit price line, newsletter consent text, withdrawal link, legal-links block
Shopify admin / apps	Settings & processing	Tax & duties calculation, Markets, payment eligibility, policy pages, customer-consent/cookie banner, shipping zones, order data
You + your advisers	Obligations	VAT registration & filing, invoices, product-safety & environmental duties, age limits, the legal sufficiency of every workflow

If a sentence on your storefront could be read as "the theme handles this obligation for you," it's in the wrong column. The storefront wording guardrails page has safe and unsafe phrasings for exactly these moments.

The launch checklist

Work top to bottom. Everything here is optional — the theme works with any of these turned off — but each one makes an EU/UK-facing store clearer. Items marked planned ship in a later release; the checklist stays useful without them.

1 · Storefront surfaces (theme editor)

Open your theme in Online Store → Themes → Customize.

• [ ] Footer policy links — the footer automatically renders the policy pages you publish in Shopify admin (refund, privacy, terms, shipping). Publish them first (see step 2), and they appear with no theme setting to flip. See Footer.
• [ ] Country/region selector — Footer → Show country/region selector. Lets shoppers pick their market so prices and duties resolve correctly. Requires Shopify Markets to be configured (step 2).
• [ ] Language selector — Footer → Show language selector. Appears once you publish more than one language. Uisce ships 50 locales, including Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx — see Translations.
• [ ] Unit pricing — shown automatically on product, cart, and order lines when a variant carries a unit price (required for certain EU categories). Set the reference unit per variant in Shopify admin; the theme displays it.
• [ ] Newsletter consent — the footer and newsletter sections carry a plain consent line. Keep it factual ("Subscribe to emails") and never pre-imply marketing consent. See storefront wording guardrails.
• [ ] Withdrawal request link — Theme settings → Withdrawal button. A restrained legal link to a withdrawal page you control, for stores selling into the EU. Turn it on, point it at your page, and choose its placements. Full setup: Withdrawal request workflow.
• [ ] Legal information block — add the Legal information block to the footer for EU-style links (right of withdrawal, model form, imprint, VAT & invoices, complaints/ODR, shipping restrictions). Every field is independently optional. See Footer and the withdrawal button reference.
• [ ] Planned — Privacy preferences control in the footer (a shopper-facing data/cookie-preferences link). Until it ships, use Shopify's Customer Privacy / consent banner (step 2).
• [ ] Planned — Sale-price disclosure on product cards (EU prior-price "was" reference). Until it ships, keep sale wording factual per the guardrails.

2 · Settings & pages (Shopify admin)

These live in Shopify admin, not the theme. The theme only displays what they produce.

• [ ] Taxes & duties — Settings → Taxes and duties. Configure tax regions, registrations, and (for cross-border) duty collection. The theme never calculates tax.
• [ ] Markets — Settings → Markets. Define the countries you sell to, their currencies, and languages. This is what powers the country and language selectors above.
• [ ] Policies — Settings → Policies. Publish refund, privacy, terms of service, and shipping policies; they flow into the footer policy row automatically. Add a contact method.
• [ ] Customer privacy / consent — Settings → Customer privacy. Configure the cookie-consent banner and data-processing settings for EU/UK visitors.
• [ ] Shipping — Settings → Shipping and delivery. Set the zones, rates, and restrictions you actually offer. See Cross-border shipping boundaries.

3 · Confirm with the official sources (you + your advisers)

The theme can't help here, but a launch isn't ready until these are settled. Each links to a boundary guide that explains what the theme does and does not do for that topic.

• [ ] VAT — registration, OSS/IOSS, filing, remittance, invoices. See EU VAT, OSS & IOSS and UK & Ireland VAT.
• [ ] Product safety — labelling, responsible-person, GPSR-style information. See Product-safety information.
• [ ] Environmental — packaging/EPR, WEEE, battery and similar disclosures. See Environmental information.
• [ ] Privacy & tracking — consent, cookies, analytics, data rights. See Privacy, cookies & tracking.
• [ ] Regulated & age-restricted products — warnings and age checks. See Regulated products & age verification.
• [ ] Withdrawal / returns — the legal wording, availability window, and the workflow that receives requests. See Withdrawal request workflow.

Wording, in one rule

Describe what the surface does, not what it guarantees. "VAT shown at checkout where applicable" is safe; "EU VAT compliant" is not. The storefront wording guardrails page collects the safe and unsafe phrasings for tax, shipping, safety, privacy, and withdrawal in one place — keep it open while you write store copy.

Where to go next

Each topic has a dedicated boundary guide. They share one shape — what the theme does, what Shopify admin handles, what stays your responsibility, and safe vs. unsafe wording — so you can skim the one you need:

• Storefront wording guardrails — safe vs. unsafe phrasings (read this first)
• EU VAT, OSS & IOSS boundaries
• UK & Ireland VAT boundaries
• Product-safety information setup
• Environmental information setup
• Privacy, cookies & tracking boundaries
• Cross-border shipping boundaries
• Regulated products & age verification
• Withdrawal request workflow

What this checklist is — and is not

This page helps you configure EU-aware storefront surfaces and points you at the settings and sources that matter. It is not legal, tax, or compliance advice, and following it does not make a store compliant with any law. Tax calculation, payment eligibility, invoicing, consent capture, and the legal correctness of your policies and workflows are handled in Shopify admin, by apps, or by you and your professional advisers — not by the theme. Confirm your obligations with the official authorities and, where it matters, take your own advice.