The measure aims to curb or eliminate a harmful practice that results in resource waste and GHG emissions from destruction by incineration or landfill. Every year in Europe, between 250,000 and 600,000 tonnes of unsold clothing are destroyed, accounting for between 4% and 9% of the total garments placed on the market. These disposal processes generate approximately 5.6 million tonnes of CO2eq greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually.

A high proportion of unsold stock is inherent in the fashion industry due to the extreme variability and unpredictability of consumer tastes, which make demand forecasts inaccurate. Errors in production planning, product defects, poor batch management, and the rapid obsolescence of fashion trends compound this. Another increasingly significant factor is the volume of items returned after purchase on major e-commerce platforms, due to incorrect sizing, unsatisfactory fit, or simply a change of mind. According to the EEA, in Europe, the average return rate for clothes bought online is estimated at over 20%; in other words, one in five items sold is returned, and around one-third of returned items are destined for destruction.

In addition to the ban on destruction, the regulation also establishes a transparency obligation (Art. 24) requiring the publication of data on unsold volumes and their destination, and also sets out a limited list of exceptions permitting destruction in specific circumstances:

• the product is a dangerous product and destruction is the appropriate and proportionate corrective action;
• the product is unfit for purpose by reason that it is non-compliant with Union or national law;
• it is found that the product infringes intellectual property rights (IPR);
• the product is unsuitable for preparing for reuse or remanufacturing because it is technically unfeasible either to remove or render permanently inaccessible labels, logos or recognizable product design characteristics;
• the product is unfit for the purpose for which it was intended due to design or manufacturing defects for which corrective measures are not technically feasible;
• the product is non-compliant with applicable, or voluntary company policies or third-party standards related to chemical safety, and destruction is the appropriate and proportionate corrective action; 
• no recipient could be found for them through sale, donation or other forms of transfer.

The impact of the ban on destruction will be far-reaching, and the business sector is currently ill-prepared for it, given the still-weak reuse supply chain and the volumes of products involved. Added to this are the inherent limitations of the fashion market, which render ‘out-of-fashion’ garments unsuitable for sale, and the fact that repair is not economically viable for garments of low unit value. Finally, there is the difficulty of removing the brand’s distinctive marks from the garments; the issue goes beyond IPR infringement, as resold or donated recognizable items can negatively impact the brand’s position.

The questions and points for discussion raised by the measure are therefore numerous, such as:

1. What checks will be carried out and by whom to verify the correct application of the regulations?
2. How will companies and shops be encouraged to adopt preventive systems to reduce the unsold items rate (e.g., ERP using AI to plan on-demand production)?
3. What resources will be made available to economic operators who take on the management of unsold stock, incentivizing new business models (such as repair and remanufacturing of goods) and the creation of platforms for industrial symbiosis?