EU Deforestation Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115)

The EU Deforestation Regulation reaches four of the markets ESGOS covers through the obligations it places on the European buyer. Its core articles are not yet in application. This explainer sets out what the Regulation says, as it stands in the consolidated text.

What it is

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 applies to the relevant products listed in its Annex I that contain, have been fed with or have been made using cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya or wood. Such products may not be placed on the Union market or exported from it unless they are deforestation-free, have been produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production, and are covered by a due diligence statement.¹ Deforestation-free means produced on land not subject to deforestation after 31 December 2020.¹

The compliance instrument is due diligence, not a certificate. Article 4 requires the operator to exercise due diligence under Article 8 before placing a relevant product on the market or exporting it, and not to do so without first submitting a due diligence statement through the information system referred to in Article 33.¹ Due diligence has three parts — information collection, risk assessment and risk mitigation — and the information is kept for five years.¹ The information Article 9(1) asks for includes the geolocation of all plots of land where the relevant commodities were produced (point (d)) and adequately conclusive and verifiable information that they were produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production (point (h)).¹

Who it binds

The Regulation binds three classes of person, defined in Article 2. An operator places relevant products on the market or exports them in the course of a commercial activity, excluding downstream operators; a downstream operator places on the market or exports relevant products made using relevant products that are already covered by a due diligence statement or a simplified declaration; a trader is any other person in the supply chain who makes relevant products available on the market.² Downstream operators and traders may act only if they hold the information Article 5(3) lists, those that are not SMEs must register in the information system first, and all must keep identifying information on the suppliers who supplied them and the customers they supplied, including the reference numbers of due diligence statements or declaration identifiers.²

A producer in China, India, Malaysia or Thailand is not named by these articles; it is reached because the operator’s due diligence cannot be completed without plot-level geolocation and legality evidence from the country of production.¹ One category turns on origin: the micro or small primary operator is an operator who is a natural person or a micro or small undertaking within the meaning of Directive 2013/34/EU, established in a country classified as low risk under Article 29, and selling what it grew, harvested, obtained from or raised itself.² Under Article 4a such an operator submits a one-time simplified declaration instead of the full Article 4 obligations, is assigned a declaration identifier, and may give a postal address in place of the Article 9(1)(d) geolocation.² On the Commission’s list, China, India and Thailand are low-risk countries and Malaysia is not listed, so Malaysia keeps the standard level of risk — the simplified regime is open to primary operators established in the first three and not to those in Malaysia.³

Dates

Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 replaced Article 38. In the consolidated text as it stands at 26 December 2025, Article 38(2) applies Articles 3 to 13, Articles 16 to 24 and Articles 26, 31 and 32 from 30 December 2026.² Article 38(3) then sets a later date for a narrower group: except as regards the products covered by the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 — the EU Timber Regulation — the same articles apply from 30 June 2027 to operators, whether natural persons or micro or small undertakings within the meaning of Article 3(1) or Article 3(2), first subparagraph, of Directive 2013/34/EU, who were established as such by 31 December 2024.² The carve-out matters for wood: a micro or small operator dealing in products listed in the Timber Regulation annex is on the 30 December 2026 date, not the 30 June 2027 one.⁴ The same amending regulation introduced the downstream operator category and the simplified declaration, and deleted printed products from Annex I.⁴

Thresholds

The Regulation has no volume or value de minimis. What varies is the risk tier of the country of production. Article 29(1) sets a three-tier system — high risk, low risk, and standard risk for anything in neither category; all countries were assigned the standard level on 29 June 2023, and the Commission was to publish the low-risk and high-risk list by implementing act no later than 30 June 2025, reviewing and updating it as often as necessary in light of new evidence.² Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093 of 22 May 2025 is that list: China, India and Thailand appear among the low-risk countries; Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar and the Russian Federation are the high-risk countries; and a standard level is maintained for all countries not listed, which is where Malaysia sits.³

The tier changes the work. Under Article 13, an operator that has ascertained that all relevant commodities and products were produced in low-risk countries — having assessed supply-chain complexity and the risk of circumvention or of mixing with products of unknown or higher-risk origin — is not required to carry out the risk assessment and risk mitigation of Articles 10 and 11, but must make documentation available to the competent authority on request; the full obligations return the moment the operator learns of a risk of non-compliance or circumvention.²

Verification standard

The Regulation mandates no accredited third-party verifier and names no verification standard. The due diligence statement is the instrument, and enforcement runs through Member State competent authorities. Article 16 sets the intensity of their annual checks by risk tier: at least 3 % of the operators, non-SME downstream operators and non-SME traders handling products from standard-risk countries; at least 9 % of those persons and 9 % of the quantity of each relevant product for high-risk countries; and at least 1 % for low-risk countries, with the quantified objectives met separately for each relevant commodity.² For a Malaysian supply chain that is the 3 % rate; for Chinese, Indian and Thai ones, 1 %.³

What an organisation on ESGOS can do

A producer or exporter of cattle products, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya or wood can find its listing in the directory and claim it from its profile page, or get listed and record the evidence an EU operator’s due diligence draws on: plot geolocation or, for a micro or small primary operator, the postal address of the plots; documentation of production in accordance with the legislation of the country of production; and the risk tier of the country of production. The exposure check shows whether a product line falls within Annex I and which date under Article 38 applies. The verifiers directory lists accredited verification bodies drawn from national accreditation registers; the Regulation requires no such body, so a directory entry evidences assurance capability rather than EUDR compliance. The China, India, Malaysia and Thailand overviews set this regime alongside domestic rules.

Footnotes

1. Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation, EUR-Lex. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 — consolidated text 02023R1115-20251226, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, EUR-Lex. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

3. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093 laying down rules as regards a list of countries that present a low or high risk, EUR-Lex. ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as regards certain obligations of operators and traders, EUR-Lex. ↩ ↩²