ESPR Article 24 Disclosure: What Fashion Brands Need to Know
Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, requires every large enterprise placing in-scope consumer products on the EU market to publish an annual report on the unsold goods it has discarded. The article entered into force on 18 July 2024. The first reportable financial year for large enterprises is FY 2025. Article 24 sets no date by which that first disclosure must appear. The standardised format and the twelve-month publication window are set by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2, adopted on 9 February 2026, which applies from 2 March 2027 and first reaches FY 2028 for calendar-year reporters. The ten permissible derogations under Article 25 are set by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296, adopted the same day and published on 22 April 2026. Article 24 is the public disclosure obligation. Article 25 is the destruction ban. They interact, but they are separate articles with different scopes and different application dates.
What Article 24 requires
Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, adopted on 13 June 2024, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 28 June 2024 and in force from 18 July 2024, requires an in-scope economic operator to publish an annual report covering, per product type, the number and weight of unsold consumer products discarded, the reasons for discarding them, the relevant derogation invoked where one applies under Article 25, and the proportion of those products sent to preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery, and disposal.
Reporting granularity runs at the 2-digit Combined Nomenclature code by default. Products listed in Annex II of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 report at 4-digit CN level.
The disclosure is a public report. It sits inside the annual report or on the corporate website. There is no separate filing to a regulator under Article 24 itself. The report follows the format prescribed by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 and is held open to public inspection by journalists, NGOs, competitors and the Member State authority responsible for enforcement.
When the first disclosure is due
The first reportable financial year for large enterprises is the first full FY after entry into force. For calendar-year reporters, that is FY 2025.
Article 24 itself sets no publication deadline. The twelve-month window between financial-year end and publication comes from Article 1 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2, and it applies only from the first full financial year after 2 March 2027. For a calendar-year large enterprise that is FY 2028, disclosed by 31 December 2029. Until then each annual disclosure is due without a fixed date, so publishing within twelve months of year end is a sensible discipline rather than a legal deadline.
Medium enterprises come into scope of Article 24 from 19 July 2030, by which time the twelve-month window in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 applies. Which financial year their first disclosure covers is not settled by the text. The mid-market 2030 deadline runs in parallel with the 19 July 2030 mid-market destruction ban deadline under Article 25.
Micro and small enterprises are exempt from Article 24. The five-year record retention period applies across every reporting tier.
Who Article 24 applies to
Enterprise size scope for Article 24 follows Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC on the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 makes the cross-reference explicit.
| Category | Headcount | Turnover | Balance sheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | Under 10 | At or below €2m | At or below €2m |
| Small | Under 50 | At or below €10m | At or below €10m |
| Medium | Under 250 | At or below €50m | At or below €43m |
| Large | 250 or more, or above €50m turnover combined with above €43m balance sheet | Above €50m | Above €43m |
A company sits in a category by meeting the headcount requirement and either the turnover or the balance-sheet test. An enterprise only loses its size category after two consecutive accounting periods above the relevant threshold.
A clarification on a figure circulating in trade press coverage. Several explainers have written that ESPR applies only to “large undertakings over 1,000 employees or €450m turnover”. That number is wrong. It conflates the ESPR threshold above with the post-Omnibus I Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive threshold, which is a separate regime under Directive 2022/2464 and applies to FY 2027 reports. ESPR uses the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC thresholds and applies from FY 2025 for large enterprises.
On our reading, territorial scope reaches every economic operator placing in-scope products on the EU market, including operators based outside the EU. A UK or US brand selling apparel into Germany, France or the Netherlands meets the placing-on-the-market test and falls inside Article 24 where it crosses the large-enterprise threshold.
What data the disclosure must contain
Per product type, the Article 24 report contains five required fields. The number of unsold consumer products discarded. The weight of those products. The reasons for discarding them. The derogation invoked under Article 25 where one applies. The proportion of the discarded volume sent to each of the four disposition routes set by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2: preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery, and disposal.
Reporting runs at 2-digit CN code by default. Products listed in Annex II of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 report at 4-digit CN level.
The product scope of Article 24 is materially broader than the scope of Article 25. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 sets the disclosure format across more than fifty product categories. Article 25’s destruction ban applies only to the textile subset of Annex VII: apparel, clothing accessories, and footwear. A fashion brand discarding leather goods, home textiles, jewellery or other items outside Annex VII still discloses those volumes under Article 24, even where the Article 25 destruction ban itself does not apply to them.
The disclosure is published. A line item that reads “1,400 tailored garments, no derogation invoked, disposition: disposal” is publishable as a matter of fact and is, separately, its own legal exposure under Article 25 where the product type sits inside Annex VII.
The standardised format under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 was adopted on 9 February 2026, published in OJEU on 10 February 2026, entered into force on 2 March 2026 and applies from 2 March 2027. It standardises the format of the Article 24 disclosure so reports are comparable across operators and across Member States.
The Implementing Regulation sets four things. Product categorisation by CN code, with the 2-digit default and the 4-digit Annex II priority list. Reporting units, defined as the number of items plus the weight in kilograms. Reasons for discarding that refer, where applicable, to the ten derogations under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296. And the structural format of the report itself, including how the four disposition routes (preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery, disposal) appear against each product line.
The format applies from the first full financial year after 2 March 2027, which for calendar-year large enterprises is FY 2028. A brand publishing its FY 2025 disclosure can adopt the IR 2026/2 format early, which keeps later years comparable.
There is no separate filing to the Commission or to a Member State authority under Article 24. The disclosure itself follows the prescribed format inside the brand’s own annual report or corporate website.
How Article 24 differs from Article 25
Article 24 and Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 are different articles with different scopes and different application dates.
Article 24 is the public disclosure obligation. It applies from FY 2025 for large enterprises, with no fixed publication date until the Implementing Regulation's twelve-month window applies. It covers more than fifty product categories under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2. Medium enterprises follow from 19 July 2030.
Article 25 is the destruction ban. It applies from 19 July 2026 to large enterprises and from 19 July 2030 to medium-sized enterprises. Article 25 covers the textile subset of Annex VII: apparel, clothing accessories, and footwear. Micro and small enterprises are exempt from both articles.
The two interact. A line item published under Article 24 with no derogation invoked, where the product type sits inside Annex VII and the disposition is “disposal”, is itself evidence of an Article 25 breach from 19 July 2026 onwards. The public disclosure obligation therefore acts as a soft enforcement layer on the destruction ban. A brand placing apparel inside Annex VII into the disposal stream publishes that fact in the Article 24 report. The Article 24 format forces the route to be named.
The ten derogations under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296
Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296, adopted as C(2026) 659 on 9 February 2026 and published on 22 April 2026, sets out the ten exhaustive derogations under which a large enterprise may lawfully discard apparel, clothing accessories or footwear from 19 July 2026 onwards. Each derogation requires documentary evidence retained for five years, against ten years in the Commission’s June 2025 draft.
The ten derogations are:
- The product is dangerous under the General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988.
- Non-compliance with a legal requirement. Voluntary internal company policy and third-party voluntary standards do not qualify under this derogation.
- Intellectual property infringement, such as counterfeit goods.
- Expired intellectual property licence.
- Unsuitable for reuse because brand identifiers cannot be technically removed from the garment.
- Damaged product, including physical damage, contamination, and hygiene-related conditions.
- Design or manufacturing defect where repair is not feasible.
- Donation route not accepted, where the product was offered to at least three suitable social economy entities located in the EU for a minimum of eight weeks, with no acceptance.
- Offered to a social economy entity but no recipient was found.
- Prepared for reuse but no recipient was found.
Each derogation triggers its own evidentiary record. A claim under (f) needs the inspection note and the disposal decision. A claim under (h) needs the three documented offers, the dates of each, and the recipient correspondence demonstrating non-acceptance.
How Article 24 interacts with national rules
Article 24 disclosure aggregates volumes across the EU market regardless of national regimes. It sits on top of national EPR and textile-reporting frameworks that already exist or are being adopted.
France runs the most developed national framework. The Loi AGEC brought the national destruction ban into force on 1 January 2022, with Refashion operating as the producer responsibility organisation. French operators already report into Refashion. Article 24 is the EU-wide disclosure on top.
The Netherlands brought Besluit UPV Textiel into force on 1 July 2023. The first report against the targets, on 2025 data, fell due to Rijkswaterstaat before 1 August 2026, with ILT acting as the inspection regulator. Dutch national reporting runs alongside the EU-wide Article 24 obligation.
Spain has a draft Real Decreto on textile EPR. Consultation closed on 4 September 2025, Spain notified the draft to the European Commission on 27 May 2026, and it had not been approved as of 15 October 2026.
Germany has no national textile-specific decree. The German route relies on transposition of the revised Waste Framework Directive, Directive (EU) 2025/1892, which has a transposition deadline of 17 June 2027 and a requirement for national textile EPR schemes to be operational by 17 April 2028.
Sweden brought separate textile collection into force on 1 January 2025 through Naturvardsverket. Full EPR follows under the revised WFD route by 2028.
A brand operating in four or five EU jurisdictions is therefore running four or five distinct national regimes alongside the EU-wide Article 24 disclosure. The national reports feed national regulators. The Article 24 disclosure feeds the public record.
What audit-trail readiness looks like for Article 24
A defensible Article 24 disclosure rests on per-garment records, not category-level aggregates. The disclosure is built upward from unit-level evidence: a garment identifier at SKU and unit level, the inspection record at point of arrival, the treatment performed (cleaning and conditioning, then any repair), the disposition decision, and recipient correspondence where the garment leaves the brand’s direct ownership. Five-year retention applies to every underlying record. For the deeper audit-ready circularity evidence view, the per-garment substrate sits at the centre of every derogation claim and every disposition line.
A 3PL aggregate report giving monthly volumes by category does not meet the per-item test. A general-ledger write-off entry tells the regulator nothing about a specific garment. A jobber invoice reading “miscellaneous unsold stock, Q3” leaves the brand unable to evidence a disposition route at all.
Opera Garment Solutions runs garment returns recovery as a single point of access to a network of professional garment care experts across Europe, and produces the per-garment Article 24 substrate as the byproduct of running the recovery. Inspection, treatment and disposition are recorded at unit level in the market where the garment was sold.
Frequently asked questions
What is ESPR Article 24?
Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 requires in-scope economic operators to publish an annual report on unsold consumer products discarded, per product type, with number, weight, reasons, derogation invoked, and proportion sent to each disposition route under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2.
When does ESPR Article 24 apply?
Article 24 entered into force on 18 July 2024. The first reportable financial year for large enterprises is FY 2025. Article 24 sets no publication date; the twelve-month window in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 first applies to FY 2028 for calendar-year reporters. Medium enterprises follow from 19 July 2030.
Who does ESPR Article 24 apply to?
Every economic operator placing in-scope consumer products on the EU market and meeting the large-enterprise threshold under Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC. On our reading, non-EU operators are in scope where they place product on the EU market. Medium enterprises come into scope from 19 July 2030. Micro and small enterprises are exempt.
Does Article 24 apply to UK or US fashion brands selling into the EU?
On our reading, yes. Article 24 reaches every economic operator placing in-scope products on the EU market, including operators based outside the EU. A UK or US brand at the large-enterprise threshold under Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC is in scope where it places product on the EU market.
What is the difference between ESPR Article 24 and Article 25?
Article 24 is the public disclosure obligation, applying from FY 2025 for large enterprises across more than fifty product categories. Article 25 is the destruction ban, applying from 19 July 2026 for large enterprises and 19 July 2030 for medium enterprises, across the textile subset of Annex VII.
What does Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 do?
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2, adopted on 9 February 2026, in force from 2 March 2026 and applying from 2 March 2027, standardises the format of the Article 24 disclosure. It defines product categorisation by CN code, reporting units, reasons for discarding, and the structural format of the report itself.
What are the ten derogations under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296?
Adopted on 9 February 2026, the ten derogations cover dangerous product under GPSR (EU) 2023/988, non-compliance with legal requirement, IP infringement, expired IP licence, brand identifiers that cannot be removed, damaged product, design or manufacturing defect, donation route not accepted after three offers and eight weeks, social economy entity with no recipient, and prepared for reuse with no recipient.
How long must Article 24 records be retained?
Five years per derogation invoked, set by Article 3 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296, and five years after each disclosure for delivery and reception records, under Article 4 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2. The Commission’s June 2025 draft had proposed ten years. Retention applies to every underlying record, including inspection notes, treatment logs, disposition decisions and recipient correspondence.
Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 brings FY 2025 into scope as the first reportable year for large enterprises, with no fixed publication date for that first disclosure. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 sets the format and a twelve-month window from FY 2028 for calendar-year reporters. Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/296 sets the ten derogations and the five-year retention period. Medium enterprises follow from 19 July 2030. For the wider compliance read on what the regulation changes operationally, see ESPR readiness for mid-market fashion brands.
( About the author )
Joanna Lambert
CEO & Co-Founder, Opera Garment Solutions
Joanna Lambert is CEO and co-founder of Opera Garment Solutions, which recovers returned, damaged and unsold clothing for fashion brands across the EU and the UK from hubs in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain. She writes on the EU destruction ban and on what returned stock is worth when it goes back to sale.