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. Article 24 applies from the first full financial year after ESPR entered into force. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 applies its common format to products discarded from the first full financial year after 2 March 2027 and requires publication within 12 months after that financial year ends. The format records legal-entity identification, financial year, CN-code product category, description, number, weight, packaging treatment, discard reason, waste-treatment percentages, total destruction and prevention measures. It permits a website link to qualifying sustainability reporting and requires delivery and reception records to be kept for five years after disclosure.

The ban is narrower than the general disclosure duty. Article 25 has prohibited destruction of Annex VII unsold consumer products since 19 July 2026. Annex VII currently lists apparel and clothing accessories and footwear through commodity-code entries. A transfer to another operator does not avoid the rule when the purpose is circumvention.

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.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 now sets the derogation conditions. Depending on the ground, the operator may need legal or authority evidence, an inspection or technical test, records of attempted corrective action, or evidence that repair or refurbishment is not technically feasible or cost-effective. The last-resort donation ground requires an offer to at least three suitable EU social-economy entities, or an easily accessible website offer, for at least eight weeks without acceptance. The operator must keep the required derogation documents for five years after destruction, make them available electronically within 30 days of a request, and give the receiving waste-treatment operator a statement identifying the relied-on derogation. The derogation must fit the specific facts; it is not a blanket exemption. Penalties remain a Member State matter under Article 74.