Login

|

Register

  • Home

    • Amazon FBA Support

      Amazon handed prep work back to sellers, and the consequences of getting it wrong land on you rather than on them. A carton that arrives wrong gets refused, refused stock sits somewhere earning nothing, and a launch date moves.

      Amazon FBM Support

      FBM keeps the things worth keeping. Your packaging, customer data & margin. It also puts Amazon’s performance metrics directly on your dispatch times, which is a comfortable trade at home and a much harder one from four thousand miles away.

      Direct-to-Consumer Fulfilment

      On a marketplace, a slow delivery is the marketplace’s fault. On your own store it is yours. The box that arrives, the day it arrives and how easy it is to send back are all part of what someone bought, and they decide whether a first order becomes a second one.

      Returns, Reworks & Recycling

      Treated as a cost, a return is written off twice, once on the refund and again on the unit. Treated as inventory, a lot of it goes back on sale. What decides which of those happens is how quickly the unit gets looked at and how far it had to travel to be looked at.

      Warehouse Location

      Stock held inside the market it sells into arrives as a domestic delivery. No customs event on the order, and nothing for your customer to settle before the courier hands the parcel over. Ours sits in the UK, the Netherlands and the US, which covers...

  • Contact Us

Expandly Blog

EU Bans Large Companies from Destroying Unsold Apparel — From 19 July

ESPR Regulation 2024/1781 applies to brands with 250+ employees or €50M+ turnover. Unsold clothing and footwear can no longer be incinerated or landfilled. SMEs have four years, but large brands face the ban from 19 July 2026.

In This Article

01What the ESPR destruction ban prohibits
02The large company threshold and exemptions
03What is still permitted: donation, liquidation, re-export
04Which US brands are in scope now
05Updating the EU stock disposal policy before July 19

Key Takeaways

►Large companies banned from destroying unsold apparel
►Threshold: 250+ employees or €50M+ turnover
►SMEs exempt until 2030 — four-year grace period
►Donation, liquidation and re-export remain permitted

ESPR Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 bans the destruction of unsold apparel and footwear for large companies from 19 July 2026. The large company threshold is 250 or more employees, or €50M or more in annual turnover. US fashion brands at that scale, with EU operations or EU-held inventory, need to review stock disposal policies before that date.

19 Jul 2026 date ESPR ban on unsold apparel destruction takes effect for large companies — 250+ employees or €50M+ turnover (Source: EUR-Lex)

The ban covers destruction: incineration, landfill disposal, and deliberate damage that renders goods unsaleable. Donating stock, selling to secondary market channels, liquidating at discount, and re-exporting outside the EU are all permitted alternatives. The regulation changes the end-of-life disposal option for unsold goods. It does not restrict how brands manage inventory, run promotions, or discount excess stock commercially.

Companies below the 250-employee and €50M-turnover thresholds benefit from a four-year exemption and do not face the ban until 2030. For brands above either threshold with EU warehouse operations, the July 19 deadline is immediate. The threshold applies to the company's global size, not just its EU operations, so a US brand with 300 employees and $60M turnover falls within scope regardless of how much of that is EU revenue.

For US fashion brands operating EU warehousing, the stock disposal policy for EU-held unsold inventory needs to be updated before 19 July. This applies to goods physically located in the EU, regardless of where the brand is headquartered. The regulation applies to goods placed on the EU market, meaning goods shipped into the EU and held for distribution or sale are covered under its scope.

  • ESPR Regulation 2024/1781 bans unsold apparel and footwear destruction for large companies from 19 July 2026
  • Large company threshold: 250+ employees OR €50M+ in annual turnover
  • SMEs have a four-year exemption — the ban applies to them from 2030
  • Permitted alternatives: donation, secondary market, liquidation, re-export — only destruction is banned

The practical requirement is a policy update on how EU-held unsold stock is disposed of. Destruction is no longer a compliant option for large companies from 19 July.

Expandly helps US ecommerce brands expand into Europe — compliance, marketplaces and fulfilment, all handled. We’ve supported 2,000+ brands make the move.

Find out more
  • EPR compliance managed from day one — packaging, WEEE, batteries and beyond
  • Product label review and Responsible Person service for EU and UK market entry

The bigger picture

ESPR signals the direction of EU fashion market regulation

The ESPR unsold goods ban is the first mandatory measure under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation — but it won't be the last. ESPR is a framework regulation that enables the European Commission to introduce product-specific requirements across a wide range of categories over the next decade. The apparel and footwear destruction ban is the opening provision. Brands entering the EU fashion market now are entering a regulatory environment that will become progressively more demanding on circularity, durability and end-of-life reporting.

  • Assess whether your brand falls above the large company threshold — 250+ employees or €50M+ turnover determines whether you face the July 19 ban or the 2030 exemption
  • Update your EU stock disposal policy before 19 July to remove destruction as a listed disposal option and document compliant alternatives
  • Factor EU returns handling into your in-market fulfilment setup — EU consumer return rates in fashion are high, and compliant returns management is part of the broader ESPR circularity framework

Ban Effective Date (Large Companies)

ESPR Regulation 2024/1781 prohibition on unsold apparel and footwear destruction takes effect for companies with 250+ employees or €50M+ annual turnover

19 Jul 2026

Source: EUR-Lex / European Commission

SME Exemption Period

Companies below the large company threshold have a four-year exemption before the unsold goods destruction ban applies to them

4 years

Source: ESPR Regulation 2024/1781

Compliance-First Onboarding

Product compliance and VAT setup run in parallel from day one. From there, VAT registration, marketplace setup and EU-local fulfilment follow in the right order.

2,000+

brands expanded with Expandly

If this sounds like your world,
let's talk.

Expandly helps US ecommerce brands expand into Europe — compliance, marketplaces and fulfilment, all handled.

Self-Serve

  • £1,150/month
  • Platform-led with email support
  • Best for: $1M–$5M brands

Guided

  • £3,000/month
  • Dedicated Account Manager
  • Best for: $5M–$20M brands

VIP

  • £5,000/month
  • Dedicated VIP Consultant
  • Best for: $20M–$50M+ brands
See full pricing and what's included