ESPR unsold goods disclosure tracker

Start each row by confirming that the item is a consumer product and is unsold. ESPR includes products that never sold, including surplus stock and deadstock, and products returned under a withdrawal right or a longer trader return period. Regulation (EU) 2026/2 clarifies that donation is not discarding; the disclosure duty concerns products discarded as waste for a waste-treatment operation.

Then classify the enterprise and the action. Article 24 excludes micro and small enterprises and applies to medium-sized enterprises from 19 July 2030. Article 25 uses the same size dates for the destruction ban, but also bars an operator outside the ban from destroying goods supplied to it to circumvent the prohibition.

ESPR uses the enterprise categories in Recommendation 2003/361/EC. A microenterprise has fewer than 10 annual work units and turnover or a balance-sheet total no higher than EUR 2 million; a small enterprise has fewer than 50 annual work units and turnover or a balance-sheet total no higher than EUR 10 million; the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ceiling is fewer than 250 annual work units and turnover no higher than EUR 50 million or a balance-sheet total no higher than EUR 43 million. Apply the Recommendation's autonomous, partner, and linked-enterprise calculations rather than testing one legal entity in isolation. An annual work unit is one full-year full-time worker; part-year and part-time work count as fractions under the Recommendation.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 now supplies the prescribed format. It applies from 2 March 2027 to products discarded in each financial year beginning with the first full financial year after that date, and the disclosure is due within 12 months after that financial year ends. This timing does not cancel the earlier Article 24 duty to disclose the first full financial year during which ESPR was in force.

The format identifies the legal entity, identifier type, standalone or consolidated disclosure, financial-year dates, product category and description, number and weight, whether packaging is included, reason, waste-treatment percentages, and prevention measures. Use two-digit CN codes by default and the four-digit codes listed in Annex II for the specified product groups.

The disclosure duty covers discarded unsold consumer products across product sectors, subject to operator-size rules. The destruction ban is narrower: from 19 July 2026 it covers the Annex VII CN entries for apparel and clothing accessories and footwear. Medium-sized enterprises enter the ban on 19 July 2030.

Regulation (EU) 2026/296 now defines ten derogation circumstances and the evidence for each. A derogation is not a general permission to discard stock. The operator must match the facts to a listed circumstance, retain the specified electronic documentation for five years after destruction, provide it within 30 days when requested, and give the waste-treatment operator a statement identifying the derogation.

Keep the public disclosure and the calculation file together. Regulation (EU) 2026/2 requires operators to retain delivery and reception evidence, including waste-treatment operator statements, for five years after disclosure. Competent authorities use a risk-based verification process and can compare disclosed quantities with delivery records and treatment with the receiving operator's activities.

Keep the derogation file separate but linked. Regulation (EU) 2026/296 prescribes different evidence for each circumstance, requires five-year electronic retention after destruction, and requires production within 30 days unless the authority already has the information under another act.

The 2026 acts set the EU-level format, verification process, and derogations. They do not decide enterprise size for a particular corporate group, the correct CN code for a borderline product, or whether specific facts satisfy a derogation. Record those as legal or classification decisions with supporting evidence.

Keep the two timing regimes visible. Article 24 required the first disclosure for the first full financial year during which ESPR was in force. Regulation (EU) 2026/2 applies its prescribed format from 2 March 2027 to products discarded in the first full financial year after that date and requires publication within 12 months after year-end.