The ESPR destruction ban checklist

The Article 25 destruction ban applies to large economic operators from 19 July 2026 and to medium-sized economic operators from 19 July 2030.¹ Article 25(1) of the ESPR expressly states that the prohibition does not apply to micro and small enterprises; both are exempted from the ban entirely.¹

Under Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC, an enterprise is an SME if it has fewer than 250 employees and either annual turnover not exceeding €50 million or an annual balance-sheet total not exceeding €43 million.⁶ A large economic operator is therefore any enterprise that has 250 or more employees, or that exceeds both the €50 million turnover and €43 million balance-sheet thresholds. A medium-sized economic operator has 50 to 249 employees and either turnover not exceeding €50 million or balance-sheet total not exceeding €43 million, and does not qualify as small. A small enterprise has fewer than 50 employees and turnover or balance-sheet total not exceeding €10 million. A microenterprise has fewer than 10 employees and turnover or balance-sheet total not exceeding €2 million.⁶

The product categories covered by the destruction ban are listed in Annex VII of the ESPR. As of the latest review of this page, Annex VII covers apparel, clothing accessories, and footwear; the Commission may add further categories by delegated act. For brand-level apparel and footwear businesses, the relevant scope aligns with Combined Nomenclature chapters 61 (knitted apparel), 62 (woven apparel), and 64 (footwear).

The trigger for the obligation is placement on the EU market, not the manufacturer's location. A US, Asian, or UK brand selling apparel into any EU member state is in scope if the entity placing products on the market meets the large-enterprise threshold and the products are in Annex VII. The placement test is per legal entity; brands that operate through multiple EU subsidiaries need to assess the obligation at each entity level.

Article 2(34) of the ESPR defines 'destruction' as discarding an unsold consumer product as waste for any type of waste treatment operation.¹ Article 25 prohibits destruction in that sense for the categories listed in Annex VII from 19 July 2026, unless one of the ten derogations in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 applies.³ Recital (3) of the Delegated Regulation clarifies that donating, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and preparing for reuse do not constitute destruction.³

The Annex I template for the Article 24 disclosure reinforces the same distinction at the operational level: it lists waste-treatment operations as 'Preparing for reuse' (a separate, non-destruction column) and a 'Destruction' group that sums recycling, other recovery, and disposal.² In practical terms for an apparel brand, that produces the following classification.

Pathways that do not count as destruction (always compliant for Annex VII products):

Pathways that do count as destruction (require a derogation for Annex VII products from 19 July 2026):

The regulatory logic is sequential. Before a destruction operation becomes permissible under any derogation, the brand must demonstrate that resale, donation, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and preparing for reuse have been considered and either applied or ruled out for documented reasons.³ This sequencing is enforced through the Article 24 disclosure obligation: every destruction event is recorded with a derogation reference, and authorities can request the supporting documentation in electronic form within 30 days under Article 3 of the Delegated Regulation.³ Recital (3) of the Delegated Regulation further requires that where destruction is justified under a derogation, it must still follow the priority order of the waste hierarchy set out in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC (Waste Framework Directive), prioritising recycling over other recovery and disposal.³⁷

Destruction is permitted under Article 2 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 (formerly C(2026) 659) only when one of these ten circumstances applies.³ The full text of each derogation and the evidence requirements is covered in the ESPR Article 24 disclosure guide; this list is the quick reference. The derogations are summarised in plain language; the regulation's own wording is more precise and should be consulted before any specific destruction decision.

For all ten derogations, the supporting evidence must be captured at the unit or batch level, dated and tied to the unit identifier, retained for five years after destruction, and put at the disposal of competent authorities in electronic form within 30 days of receipt of a request, under Article 3 of the Delegated Regulation.³ Article 4 of the Delegated Regulation additionally requires the economic operator to provide a statement on the applicable derogation to the waste-treatment operator that receives the product.³

A brand that goes through the seven-phase operational checklist should be able to recognise itself in this picture on the morning of 20 July 2026.

Brands that arrive at this picture have not built a compliance project. They have built the operational discipline that the ESPR was designed to incentivise. The disclosure is then a byproduct.

Flexireo was co-developed over two years with a multinational sporting goods brand, processing more than 50,000 products through the platform. Of the seven phases above, Flexireo addresses phases 3, 5, 6, and 7 directly, and stores the documentation for phase 4.