It's now non-negotiable – you have to be transparent about your unsold goods

On 9 February 2026, the EU adopted new measures under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) that will ban the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing, accessories, and footwear ❌

Except, of course, if it’s absolutely necessary due to safety concerns, significant product defects, or immaterial rights.

Obviously, this is a big one for the fashion and lifestyle industries. 

Here’s what you need to know and our advice

The key dates

📅 19 July 2026: The ban applies to large companies. 

📅 February 2027: Standardised disclosure rules on discarded unsold products start applying. 

You must still inform about the unsold consumer products you discard (or have someone else discard for you) before those rules apply, just without a standard format. 

You must make it available on an easily accessible page on your website and include info on:

• The number and weight of unsold consumer products discarded per year per type or category of product.

• Your reasons for discarding them.

• The proportion of those discarded products that go to reuse, recycling, other recovery, and disposal operations.

• How you are and plan to prevent the destruction of unsold consumer products. 

📅 2030: The ban and reporting requirements expand to medium-sized companies. 

Even if you’re an SME, don’t think you can ignore this until 2030. Your customers, retailers and supply chain partners will likely start asking questions long before then. 

What brands should start doing now

With the ESPR, the EU is pushing companies to rethink inventory and circularity. 

In practice, that means exploring alternatives such as resale or outlet channels, donations, repair, and recycling strategies. 

Here's our advice

Don’t wait for the deadline. 

Use the next few years to:

• improve forecasting and stock management

• build partnerships for resale or reuse

• set up systems to track unsold inventory (and make sure your IT systems can do the job) 

Phew, that was a bit of a long one this time 

We can help with all of it – in fact, our good friends over at ebp Global are experts when it comes to forecasting as well as stock and inventory management!