Regulation
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How to document unsold-product disposition under Article 24 and the Article 25 destruction ban. Flexireo logs every batch at intake, captures the triage decision that routes it (rework, prep for reuse, donation, recycling, other recovery, or disposal), and generates the audit trail both articles require - every disposition path, not just rework. The ban takes effect 19 July 2026 for large economic operators and 19 July 2030 for medium-sized economic operators.1
Most apparel brands are not prepared for ESPR Article 24 reporting.
| CN code | Description | Units | kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6109 | T-shirts, knitted | 5,420 | 1,138 |
| 6203 | Men’s suits, trousers | 3,180 | 1,082 |
| 6204 | Women’s suits, dresses | 2,890 | 954 |
| 6402 | Footwear, rubber/plastic | 850 | 244 |
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, formally Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, entered into force on 18 July 2024.1 It is the EU's principal framework regulation governing the environmental performance of products placed on the Union market. Article 24 establishes a transparency obligation: large economic operators must disclose information on unsold consumer products that have been discarded as waste.
Article 25 establishes a prohibition: large economic operators may no longer destroy specific categories of unsold consumer products, including the textile and footwear categories listed in Annex VII.
Two implementing acts give the regulation its operational shape. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2, published in the Official Journal on 10 February 2026 and applying from 2 March 2027, defines the standardised disclosure format and the data fields in Annex I.2 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 (formerly C(2026) 659) enumerates the ten narrow derogations under which a large economic operator may still destroy an unsold product.3 Both are short, structured texts; both reward careful reading.
Flexireo's regulatory documentation is reviewed against the latest consolidated versions of these acts.
Both Article 24 and Article 25 turn on a single defined term. Article 2(37) of the ESPR defines an unsold consumer product as any consumer product that has not been sold, including surplus stock, excess inventory and deadstock, together with products returned by a consumer on the basis of their right of withdrawal under Article 9 of Directive 2011/83/EU (the Consumer Rights Directive), or during any longer return period the trader chooses to offer.110
Three consequences matter for an apparel or footwear brand.
Surplus and deadstock are covered. It does not matter how long a product was available for sale; unsold stock that you discard as waste falls under Article 24, and under the Article 25 ban if it sits in an Annex VII category.
Customer returns are covered when they come back under the right of withdrawal. That statutory cooling-off right applies to distance and off-premises sales, so a return inside that window, or inside a longer returns window you advertise, is treated as an unsold consumer product once it is back in your hands and not resold. Reverse-logistics returns that you then discard are in scope for both articles.10
Products a consumer has bought and later throws away are not covered. Post-consumer disposal is governed by waste and extended-producer-responsibility law, the Waste Framework Directive and the forthcoming textile EPR rules, not by Articles 24 and 25.7
A practical way to read it: if the unit is sitting back with you and was never finally sold to an end consumer, it is an unsold consumer product. Once a sale to a consumer is complete and not reversed, what the consumer does with the product afterwards is outside these two articles.
The trigger for both articles is the economic operator discarding stock as waste, not the end consumer discarding a product they own.
The European Commission's 9 February 2026 press release and the European Environment Agency's 2024 report on returned and unsold textiles quantify the problem in three numbers. Flexireo's regulatory pages reference these as published public figures, not as audited operational data.
The regulatory clock is already ticking. The destruction ban for large economic operators is the single most pressing milestone,1 and the standardised disclosure format follows eight months later.2 Medium-sized economic operators have a four-year runway.3 Flexireo recommends building the operational audit trail starting now, regardless of enterprise size, because the data captured during rework is what any future audit will rely on.
Article 24(1) ESPR, organised across Annex I's three sections in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2
Article 24 disclosure is built on five categories of information, organised across the three sections of the Annex I template.2 The structure is short, but the underlying data requirements are demanding for any apparel brand that has not historically tracked non-conformity correcting actions at detailed level. Each field below summarises the regulatory requirement in plain language.
Legal name, registered address, contact details, and the European Unique Identifier (EUID) of the economic operator placing products on the EU market.
Quantity of discarded products by Combined Nomenclature code (2-digit by default, 4-digit for Annex II categories), with unit count and weight in kilograms.
Categorised reasons each product was discarded, with the specific derogation reference from Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 where Article 25 destruction would otherwise apply.
Share of discarded products directed to each waste-treatment pathway: preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery, disposal, and unknown.
Preventive measures the entity has taken in the reporting period, and the preventive measures it plans to take, to reduce future discards.
Article 24 disclosure does not require a separate compliance project; it requires unit-level operational data. The mapping below shows which Flexireo data point produces each disclosure field. The same data is captured during normal rework operations on the platform, so disclosure becomes an export, not a quarterly scramble.
| Disclosure field (Annex I) | Annex I requirement (plain language) | Flexireo data source |
|---|---|---|
| Entity identification | Legal name, registered address, contact details, and EUID of the economic operator | Organisation profile, populated once and reused on every disposition record |
| Product information by CN code | Quantity of discarded products by CN code, unit count and weight in kilograms | Unit-level intake records with SKU-to-CN-code mapping, quantity, and weight |
| Reasons for discarding | Categorised reasons with derogation reference from Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 where applicable | Structured triage outcomes with the relevant derogation attached at the moment of disposition |
| Waste-treatment operations breakdown | Share directed to preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery, disposal, unknown | Waste-treatment operator confirmations with operator ID, time stamp, and treatment-method code |
| Preventive measures | Measures taken and planned to reduce future discards | Workshop scorecards, root-cause logs, and corrective-action records exported in disclosure format |
Per Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296
The Article 25 destruction ban is not absolute. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 enumerates ten narrow derogations in Article 2 under which a large economic operator may still destroy an unsold textile, clothing accessory, or footwear product.3 Each derogation requires substantiated documentation, five-year retention, and availability to authorities within thirty days.3 Flexireo captures the derogation reference at the moment of disposition and stores the supporting evidence with the unit record.
Products that may not be made available on the market under the General Product Safety Regulation.
Products that do not comply with non-safety law - labelling, restricted substances, or product-information requirements.
Products whose continued availability would infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party.
Products whose intellectual property licence has expired or been terminated.
Products that are unsuitable for reuse on objective grounds.
Products damaged to the extent that repair is not technically feasible or not cost-effective.
Products with manufacturing or design defects that cannot be remedied.
Products offered for donation that the recipient organisation has refused.
Products offered to a social-economy entity with no recipient available.
Products prepared for reuse for which no recipient is available within a reasonable period.
An ESPR-grade audit trail rests on four operational habits: unit-level traceability from intake forward, time-stamped status logging with operator identification, photo evidence captured at the moment of disposition, and five-year evidence retention enforced automatically. The trail covers every batch from the triage decision onwards - units routed to rework, prep for reuse, donation, recycling, other recovery, and disposal all stay in the same record. A 10% discrepancy between your published Article 24 disclosure and the records held by your waste-treatment operators constitutes non-compliance.2 Flexireo's unit-level tracking is built to keep that gap well below 10% by capturing operator confirmations as structured input on the platform, not as an end-of-year reconciliation exercise.
Article 24 disclosure is built on the operational data your team already produces during intake, triage, and disposition - for every unsold batch, not just the units that go to rework. The question is whether that data lives in fifteen places or one. Flexireo replaces the year-end scramble with structured capture at the moment each decision is taken.
Detailed guides on the ESPR provisions apparel brands need to act on first, plus the forward-looking Digital Product Passport that will sit on top.
Track every non-conformity batch through rework, recovery, recycling, or disposal with audit-ready documentation aligned with EU ESPR requirements.
Primary sources cited inline above. Links open in a new tab.
Disclaimer. This page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. EU regulations and their implementing acts are amended frequently.
Although Flexireo reviews its regulatory pages against the latest consolidated versions of the cited acts, errors are possible and the law may have changed since this page was last reviewed. Readers should consult the primary sources linked above, and seek qualified legal advice before relying on any statement on this page.
Page published 11 May 2026; last reviewed 11 May 2026.