ESPR Destruction of unsold goods

Start with the ESPR definitions. A consumer product excludes components and intermediate products and is primarily intended for consumers. An unsold consumer product includes surplus stock, excess inventory, deadstock, and consumer returns made under withdrawal rights or a longer trader withdrawal period.

Destruction is not limited to landfill or physical shredding. ESPR defines it as intentionally damaging or discarding a product as waste, but excludes discarding solely to deliver the product for preparing for reuse, including refurbishment or remanufacturing.

Article 24 applies to economic operators that discard unsold consumer products directly or have them discarded on their behalf. The public disclosure must cover the number and weight discarded per year, product type or category, reasons for discarding, any relevant Article 25 derogation, the proportion sent to each waste-hierarchy activity, and measures taken or planned to prevent destruction.

The disclosure must be clear, visible, annual, and available at least on an easily accessible website page. The first disclosure covers unsold consumer products discarded during the first full financial year in which ESPR is in force. Micro and small enterprises are excluded from this Article 24 paragraph, and medium-sized enterprises are brought in from 19 July 2030.

The ban is narrower than the general disclosure duty. Article 25 prohibits destruction only for unsold consumer products listed in Annex VII, starting from 19 July 2026. Annex VII currently lists apparel and clothing accessories and footwear through commodity-code entries.

The ban does not apply to micro and small enterprises. It applies to medium-sized enterprises from 19 July 2030. Operators outside the prohibition still cannot destroy unsold consumer products supplied to them for the purpose of circumventing the ban.

Article 24 creates a records-response duty tied to the public disclosure. When the Commission or a competent national authority asks, the operator must provide the information and documentation needed to demonstrate delivery and reception of discarded products and, where relevant, the applicability of an Article 25 derogation.

The response window in the ESPR text is 30 days from receiving the request, unless the information is already available to the competent national authority under another legal act. That makes the practical evidence pack a reconciliation file: public totals, product-category mapping, dispatch records, receiver confirmations, treatment-route proof, and derogation evidence.

The Commission can amend Annex VII by delegated act to add products or update entries, but Article 25 requires an assessment of prevalence and environmental impacts, use of Article 24 disclosure information, and an impact assessment based on best available evidence and analysis. A delegated act adding products must specify its application date and may include tiered or transitional measures.

The Commission must also adopt delegated acts setting derogations from the prohibition where appropriate for listed reasons such as health, hygiene, safety, irreparable damage, unfitness, donation refusal, unsuitability for reuse or remanufacturing, intellectual-property infringement, or where destruction has the least negative environmental impact. Penalties are left to Member States, but Article 74 requires them to be effective, proportionate, and dissuasive and at least capable of including fines and time-limited exclusion from public procurement.