New EU Ban on the Destruction of Unsold Clothing and Footwear

What does the new ban mean?

The ESPR prohibits the destruction of unsold consumer products falling within the categories listed in Annex VII to the ESPR. In the first phase, the ban primarily concerns clothing, clothing accessories and footwear.

The ban applies to large enterprises, meaning enterprises that employ 250 or more persons, or enterprises with fewer than 250 employees where their annual turnover exceeds EUR 50 million and their annual balance sheet total also exceeds EUR 43 million.

The ban will apply to medium-sized enterprises from 19 July 2030, while small and microenterprises are exempt from the general ban.

The purpose of the new rules is to encourage enterprises to seek alternatives to destroying unsold goods, such as resale, donation, reuse or refurbishment.

“Destruction” does not mean physical disposal only

It is particularly important for enterprises that the ESPR adopts a relatively broad concept of product destruction.

Destruction is not limited to incineration or other forms of physical disposal. It may also include discarding a product as waste, including, in certain cases, through material recycling, except where the product is discarded for the purpose of preparing it for reuse, refurbishment or similar further use.

Therefore, merely transferring unsold goods to an external company for disposal or recycling does not necessarily mean that the procedure falls outside the scope of the ban.

Are there any exceptions to the ban?

Yes. The EU rules provide for limited exceptions where the destruction of an unsold product may be justified, for example for reasons relating to the protection of certain third-party rights, health, hygiene or safety, serious damage to the product, or in other situations where its further use is not possible.

However, reliance on an exception should be properly justified and documented. Enterprises should therefore not automatically assume that their existing processes for disposing of unsold goods comply with the new rules.

The ESPR also introduces new transparency requirements

The ban on destruction forms part of the ESPR’s broader rules governing the handling of unsold consumer products.
Enterprises concerned must disclose information on the quantity of unsold products discarded, the reasons for discarding them, how they are subsequently handled, and the measures adopted to prevent their destruction.

The new rules therefore affect not only how unsold goods are handled, but also increase the record-keeping and transparency requirements relating to these processes.

What should companies do now?

Companies operating in the fashion industry in particular should review how they currently handle unsold, returned or damaged products.

We recommend focusing primarily on:

•  internal processes for handling unsold and returned products;
• the conditions under which goods are transferred for recycling or other forms of disposal;
• contracts with external service providers relating to the storage, distribution, recycling and disposal of goods;
• processes for the resale, donation, reuse or refurbishment of products;
• documentation of cases in which the company relies on an exception to the ban; and
• compliance with the related disclosure and record-keeping obligations under the ESPR.

The ban currently focuses on clothing, clothing accessories and footwear. However, the ESPR allows the European Commission to extend it to other categories of consumer products in the future.

The new requirements may therefore also become relevant to companies outside the fashion industry, which should monitor further developments in EU regulation