EU bars large firms from destroying unsold apparel from 19 July 2026

The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation sets a common framework for product rules, and textiles are one of its priority groups. For fashion labels that sell into the bloc, two obligations sit at different stages. A ban on destroying unsold apparel has applied to large companies since 19 July 2026. A digital product passport for textiles depends on a delegated act that the Commission’s working plan indicates for 2027.

This explainer sets out the dates, the disclosure duties and the information the rules ask for. It draws on the framework regulation, the delegated regulation adopted in February 2026, the Commission’s first working plan and the Commission’s circular economy platform. It notes where the sources leave gaps, including the textile passport date and the size thresholds that define smaller brands.

How the framework regulation reaches fashion

Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishes a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for sustainable products. It was published in the Official Journal on 28 June 2024. It does not set detailed rules for each product. Product-specific requirements are set through delegated acts.

The regulation names textiles, in particular garments and footwear, among the priorities for the first working plan. That plan, Communication COM(2025) 187 final, is dated 16 April 2025 and covers 2025 to 2030. It ranks textiles and apparel first in a JRC ranking and records high stakeholder support for them.

The working plan treats footwear separately from textiles. It says a study on footwear will be commissioned and completed by the end of 2027. The destruction ban, by contrast, names footwear alongside apparel and clothing accessories.

For scale, the working plan gives market sizes of EUR 78 billion for textiles and apparel and EUR 142 billion for textiles and footwear, both for 2019.

Unsold textiles in Europe
The Commission’s circular economy platform estimates that 4 to 9 percent of unsold textiles in Europe are destroyed before they are worn each year.

Timeline for the unsold-goods ban

The Commission adopted the destruction rules on 9 February 2026 as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296, alongside Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2. The delegated regulation was published in the Official Journal on 22 April 2026. It entered into force on the twentieth day after publication, which is 12 May 2026.

The delegated regulation applies from 19 July 2026. The Commission’s platform says the destruction ban covers unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear. For large companies, the ban and the derogations apply from that date.

Medium-sized companies are the next group. The Commission’s platform says they are expected to follow in 2030. Article 25 of Regulation 2024/1781, as read for this article, is more specific. It states that the prohibition applies to medium-sized enterprises from 19 July 2030. The platform gives no date for small companies, and Article 25 excludes micro and small enterprises.

The ban itself rests on Article 25(1) of Regulation 2024/1781. It prohibits destruction of the unsold consumer products listed in Annex VII. The pages read do not list every product in the annex, so this article cannot list each product it covers.

Exceptions that allow destruction, and the records to keep

Delegated Regulation 2026/296 lists ten circumstances in which destruction remains allowed, provided the documentation under its Article 3 can be presented. They include dangerous products under Regulation (EU) 2023/988, non-compliance with EU or national law where destruction is the appropriate and proportionate corrective action, and intellectual property infringements established in specified ways.

Other cases cover products damaged, deteriorated or contaminated where repair and refurbishment are not technically feasible or cost-effective, and products unfit for purpose because of design or manufacturing defects. Donation is listed as a last resort. A product may be destroyed after it has been offered to at least three social economy entities in the EU, or on a company web page for at least eight weeks, and not accepted.

Records carry obligations too. Documentation must be kept for five years after destruction and supplied in electronic form within 30 days of a request. The required documents vary by derogation. Dangerous products need a description of the safety concern or a chemical test report, and intellectual property cases need the relevant decision or licence. Economic operators must also give the waste treatment operator receiving the products a statement on the applicable derogation.

The Commission says companies are encouraged to manage stock and handle returns more effectively, and to explore resale, remanufacturing, donations or reuse. Its platform cites an estimate that 4 to 9 percent of unsold textiles in Europe are destroyed before they are worn each year. It puts the resulting emissions at about 5.6 million tonnes of CO2, a figure it compares with Sweden’s total net emissions in 2021.

Disclosure of discarded unsold products

Separately from the destruction ban, the regulation requires companies to disclose information about unsold consumer products they discard as waste. Large companies are already subject to that duty. Under Article 24 as read, medium-sized companies follow from 19 July 2030.

The recitals describe the content. Each year, companies must disclose the number and weight of unsold consumer products discarded, on an easily accessible page of their website. The disclosure must also state the product type, the reasons for discarding, and the measures taken or planned to prevent destruction.

According to the Commission’s platform, a standardised disclosure format, set by an implementing regulation, applies from February 2027. Article 24 set 19 July 2025 as the deadline for the first implementing act on disclosure details. The sources read do not state whether that deadline was met.

The sources read give no compliance cost figures for brands of any size.

What the digital product passport is expected to hold

The regulation creates a digital product passport linked to a unique product identifier and, where relevant, to unique operator and facility identifiers. Access is through a data carrier, such as a QR code, which should ideally sit on the product itself. A passport may cover a single item, a batch or a model.

Customers, manufacturers, importers, distributors and dealers have free and easy access to the passport, based on their access rights set out in the delegated acts. Importers must ensure a passport is available where applicable, and dealers must make it accessible to their customers.

Under Article 9 as read, a product may be placed on the market only if a digital product passport is available. Article 4 says the date of application of a delegated act may not be earlier than 18 months after its entry into force, with exceptions for duly justified cases.

For textiles, the working plan says passport information will be specified in product-specific delegated acts. It gives no textile-specific passport requirements and does not list textile data fields. It says textile information requirements will work alongside the Textile Labelling Regulation, which it describes as currently under review. The indicative timeline for textile delegated acts is 2027.

Where the sources leave gaps for small labels

The regulation excludes micro and small enterprises from the destruction prohibition in Article 25 and from the annual disclosure in Article 24. Article 25(5) allows delegated acts to extend either duty to them where there is sufficient evidence of circumvention. The article read sets no date for such an act. The pages read do not say whether one has been adopted.

The size exclusion sits in the regulation itself. The derogation article of the delegated regulation, as read, names no size exclusion, and the Commission’s platform gives no date for small companies. Article 2 defines the categories by reference to Annex I, which points to Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC. The thresholds were not in the pages read, so this article does not place any particular brand in a category.

Medium-sized enterprises are covered from 19 July 2030 for both the destruction prohibition and the disclosure duty.

The sources read give no compliance cost figures for brands of any size. That includes the cost of building a passport, keeping records or changing a disposal policy. Neither the working plan nor the delegated regulation addresses women-led labels or designers as a group.

Photo: Matej Grochal · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons