Regulatory guide
Loi AGEC is France's anti-waste and circular economy law.1 It introduced Europe's first ban on destroying unsold non-food consumer products, requires EPR registration for apparel and footwear brands selling in France, and mandates environmental disclosure including QR-code access for consumers. This guide covers the obligations and how they interact with ESPR.
Three dates anchor the obligations on apparel, household linen, and footwear brands selling in France.
The Loi anti-gaspillage et économie circulaire (the law against waste and for the circular economy), known as Loi AGEC, was adopted on 10 February 2020 as Law 2020-105.1 It is the foundational French framework for circular economy and waste prevention, predating the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) by several years. Implementing decrees have been issued progressively since 2020: Decree 2020-1724 of 28 December 2020 implements the destruction ban under Article 35 of the law,2 and Decree 2022-748 of 29 April 2022 implements the consumer environmental information obligation under Article 13.3 Environmental disclosure obligations have been further reinforced by Loi Climat et Résilience (Law 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021), which adds a mandatory environmental cost display (the textile eco-score, currently voluntary under Decree 2025-957 since 1 October 2025).4
For apparel and footwear brands selling in France, AGEC sits alongside, not behind, ESPR.6 ESPR is the EU-wide regulatory framework that applies across all member states from 19 July 2026 for large economic operators. AGEC is the French national framework already in force, with stricter requirements in several areas: an earlier destruction ban (in force since 1 January 2022 for textile, apparel, household linen, and footwear), a mature EPR mechanism through Refashion, and specific environmental disclosure rules with QR-code access.
Where ESPR and AGEC overlap, the operational rule is to comply with the stricter regime. In practice, brands selling in France will have been meeting AGEC's obligations from 2022 onwards and will add the ESPR layer from 2026.
Many of the underlying data requirements are similar: unit-level traceability through disposition, documentation of waste-treatment operations, and disclosure of environmental information. Brands that have already built the operational infrastructure for AGEC find ESPR significantly less heavy.
Brands new to both regimes can build a single operational layer that satisfies both.
AGEC applies to producers, importers, and distributors placing products on the French market in regulated categories. For apparel, footwear, and household linen, the relevant scope is the textile, household linen, and footwear (TLC) EPR sector, established by Article L.541-10-1 of the Code de l'environnement and operationalised through Decree 2022-748 and the sector-specific approval framework administered by ADEME, the French environment and energy management agency.
Two distinct sets of thresholds apply to apparel and footwear brands selling in France.
The EPR registration obligation applies broadly: any entity placing apparel, footwear, or household linen products on the French market is required to register with Refashion (the approved eco-organisme for the TLC sector) and pay an annual eco-contribution. This obligation applies regardless of revenue or volume threshold; even small importers and pure-play e-commerce brands must register. The destruction ban under Article 35 of AGEC also applies to all producers, importers, and distributors of non-food unsold products, without revenue threshold.2
The Article 13 environmental disclosure obligation is phased by revenue and volume threshold. The phasing has been progressive, with larger brands brought into scope first and the threshold gradually lowered:3
As with ESPR, the trigger for the obligation is placement on the French market, not the manufacturer's location. A non-French brand selling apparel into France through a French subsidiary, through an e-commerce channel, or through retail distribution is in scope.
Non-French producers without a French establishment may register through an authorised representative (mandataire) who assumes the producer's REP obligations.
Article 35 of Loi AGEC (codified as Article L.541-15-8 of the Code de l'environnement) was the first major destruction ban in Europe, predating the ESPR Article 25 ban by more than four years.1 It took effect on 1 January 2022 for non-food consumer products already covered by an EPR sector (which includes the TLC sector covering apparel, household linen, and footwear) and was extended to all non-food consumer products from 1 January 2024.2 The page on which this English explainer is published refers to this provision as the 'destruction ban' in line with the official French government framing (interdiction de destruction).2
Strictly speaking, the law establishes a hierarchy obligation: producers, importers, and distributors of new non-food unsold products must reuse them (with priority given to donation to associations recognised for charitable purposes), reutilise them after refurbishment, or recycle them, in that order of priority.2 Incineration and landfilling are strongly discouraged but not absolutely prohibited for most product categories. For hygiene and childcare products specifically, only reuse is permitted; destruction in any form is forbidden.2
Permissible alternatives under the AGEC framework:
Derogations under AGEC for the situations where these alternatives are not feasible are set out in Decree 2020-1724 and have been refined through implementing decrees.2 Failure to comply with the obligations under Article L.541-15-8 is punishable by an administrative fine of up to €3,000 for a natural person and €15,000 for a legal person, per breach (manquement). Enforcement intensified following the 1 January 2024 extension to all non-food categories.2
The textile, apparel, footwear, and household linen sector in France (TLC) was the first EPR sector introduced in 2007 by French regulation. Refashion (formerly Eco TLC) is currently the sole approved eco-organisme (in English: Producer Responsibility Organisation, abbreviated PRO) for the sector, holding the State approval until the end of 2028.
Refashion holds its approval under Article L.541-10-1 and Article R.543-214 of the Code de l'environnement and a sector cahier des charges (specification) issued by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Producers placing products on the French market complete three operational steps:
Adherence creates the producer file. The producer signs the standard Refashion contract and agrees to the eco-contribution tariff. Adherence is open to French and non-French entities; non-French producers without a French establishment may register through an authorised representative (mandataire).
Once adherence is complete, Refashion registers the producer in SYDEREP (Système Déclaratif des Filières REP, the national EPR reporting system managed by ADEME). ADEME issues the IDU (Identifiant Unique, the Unique Identifier) and Refashion transmits it to the producer. The IDU is the producer's identifier for French EPR purposes and is filière-specific (a producer subject to multiple EPR sectors will hold one IDU per sector).
The eco-contribution is calculated from a tariff schedule based on product category, weight, recycled content, and recyclability indicators, with eco-modulations (bonuses and penalties). The tariff is updated annually by Refashion and published on its producer portal. For producers in the collective system (the standard route), Refashion handles the SYDEREP declarations on behalf of the producer; the producer does not declare directly. Producers operating an approved individual system declare directly to SYDEREP.
The IDU must appear on commercial documents (invoices, delivery notes, contracts, general terms and conditions) issued for sales in France, under Article R.541-173 of the Code de l'environnement, and on the producer's website where applicable. Major French retailers and platforms typically refuse to onboard a producer that cannot present a valid IDU; market access in France is effectively conditional on IDU possession.
Article 13 of Loi AGEC requires producers to disclose specific environmental and traceability characteristics of their products to consumers.1 Decree 2022-748 of 29 April 2022 sets out the implementation for products generating waste, and is the practical anchor for textile and footwear obligations.3 Loi Climat et Résilience (Law 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021) supplements this framework by introducing the upcoming mandatory environmental cost display ('affichage du coût environnemental', commonly referred to as the eco-score), implemented by Decree 2025-957 of 6 September 2025 with the textile eco-score in force since 1 October 2025 on a voluntary basis pending the next stage of regulatory adoption.4
For textile products covered by Article 13 (paragraph II), the disclosure must cover:3
The disclosure must be made available on a dedicated digital fiche produit ('fiche produit relative aux qualités et caractéristiques environnementales'), accessible from the product page (online) or in store. The fiche must support direct search and machine-readable extraction, and must remain available for at least two years after the last unit of the product is placed on the market.3
The data overlap with the future ESPR Digital Product Passport (DPP) for textiles is substantial. The AGEC environmental disclosure prefigures, in many respects, what the DPP will require Union-wide from 2027 onwards.6 Brands that have built the data infrastructure for AGEC Article 13 will find the DPP largely a re-formatting exercise.
Brands new to both regimes should design the data model with both in mind from the outset.
AGEC enforcement is administered by the French national consumer protection and fraud control authority (Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes, abbreviated DGCCRF), with ADEME providing oversight for EPR-specific obligations. Refashion supports compliance through its producer portal but is not itself an enforcement authority.
The principal penalty regimes:
Administrative penalty under the EPR framework, with the practical consequence of being denied a valid IDU. In practice, the commercial penalty (loss of retail and platform access in France) often exceeds the administrative fine.
Administrative fine. Each non-compliant document or transaction can constitute a separate violation under Article R.541-173 of the Code de l'environnement.
Administrative fines apply under the Article 13 framework, with the maximum amount set by the relevant implementing decree. Brands subject to phased thresholds (€10M revenue and 10,000 units as of 1 January 2025) need to verify the exact maximum against the most recent decree text and consumer-code provisions. Misleading environmental claims (greenwashing) attract separate sanctions under the Consumer Code, with criminal exposure up to 10% of average annual turnover.
Administrative fine of up to €3,000 for a natural person and €15,000 for a legal person, per breach (manquement).2 The economic exposure scales with the number of breaches, which can be substantial for high-volume violations.
Enforcement intensity has increased through 2024 and 2025 as the Article 13 disclosure obligations have taken effect at lower thresholds and the destruction ban has been extended to all non-food products. Brands selling in France should treat AGEC compliance as an active-enforcement regime, not a paper obligation.
For apparel and footwear brands selling in both France and the wider EU, the operational rule is to comply with the stricter requirement in each domain. The two regimes overlap substantially but diverge in scope, timing, and reporting flow.
| Aspect | AGEC (France) | ESPR (EU-wide) |
|---|---|---|
| Destruction ban | 1 January 2022 for EPR-covered sectors including TLC; extended to all non-food categories 1 January 2024.2 Narrower derogations under French implementing decrees. | 19 July 2026 for large economic operators; 19 July 2030 for medium-sized economic operators. Ten derogations under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296.68 |
| Producer responsibility (EPR) | Refashion eco-organisme for TLC (textiles, household linen, footwear); mature EPR with annual eco-contribution and eco-modulations. | No direct EU-level equivalent; ESPR does not replicate the PRO model at Union level. |
| Environmental disclosure | Article 13 of AGEC with QR-code access; phased thresholds reaching €10M / 10,000 units on 1 January 2025.3 Eco-score under Loi Climat et Résilience implemented by Decree 2025-957, currently voluntary.4 | Article 24 ESPR with standardised Annex I format under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2; standardised format applies to products discarded in financial years starting on or after 2 March 2027.7 |
| Reporting flow | Producers in the collective system declare annual volumes to Refashion, which reports to SYDEREP (managed by ADEME). Producers in individual systems declare directly to SYDEREP. | Disclosure published on the economic operator's own website, or included within sustainability reporting under Article 19a or 29a of Directive 2013/34/EU.7 |
| Producer identifier | IDU (Identifiant Unique) issued by ADEME upon SYDEREP registration (handled by Refashion for collective-system producers). | European Unique Identifier (EUID) per Directive (EU) 2017/1132, or an alternative identifier from an officially recognised Member State scheme. |
| Penalty regime | Member-state level. Up to €15,000 per breach (legal person) under Article L.541-15-8 for destruction-ban violations; separate fines under Article 13 and the Consumer Code. | Member-state penalties under Article 74 ESPR; effective, proportionate, and dissuasive; at least fines and time-limited exclusion from public procurement procedures.6 |
The practical implication for a multi-country apparel brand is to build one operational data layer (unit-level identification, time-stamped status changes, CN-code mapping, waste-treatment operator confirmations, and environmental and traceability data) that feeds both regimes. The cost of double infrastructure is real; the cost of inconsistent data across regimes is worse.
Flexireo was co-developed over two years with a multinational sporting goods brand, processing more than 50,000 products through the platform. The operational data captured for rework coordination feeds directly into AGEC compliance.
Triage decisions captured at the unit level, with derogation codes for any unit routed to destruction. AGEC's hierarchy obligation (reuse, reutilise, recycle in priority order) can be configured alongside the ESPR derogations so a single triage workflow satisfies both regimes.
Unit volumes by product category aggregate cleanly for the data Refashion needs from producers in the collective system. The product catalogue carries the weight and recycled-content fields used in the eco-contribution calculation and eco-modulations.
Photo evidence, operator confirmations, and time-stamped status changes are retained for five years, matching both the AGEC enforcement window and the ESPR five-year retention period for waste-treatment documentation and derogation evidence.
Flexireo does not handle the Article 13 environmental disclosure itself; that obligation draws on product-level data that typically sits in the brand's PIM (Product Information Management) and DPP-readiness platforms.
Flexireo's role is the operational layer that produces unit-level traceability and disposition data. For brands that integrate Flexireo with a PIM, the rework and disposition data can flow back into the product record to support the Article 13 lifecycle disclosures.
Pilot pricing: €1,250 flat for up to two months and 30,000 units, with a full money-back guarantee. For brands that need only the AGEC documentation layer without a rework workflow tracked in Flexireo, a one-time fee of €90 per project applies.
Book a 30-minute demo and we will map your AGEC obligations against the operational data your rework process produces. We will show you which AGEC fields you can already populate from unit-level rework data, where the gaps are, and how the same operational layer will satisfy ESPR Article 24 from 2026.
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. French law and EU regulations, together with their implementing decrees and 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 French legal advice before relying on any statement on this page.
Page published 13 May 2026; last reviewed 13 May 2026.