On September 9, 2025, the EU changed its Waste Framework Directive to include mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs for textiles, called EPR textile. Basically, all 27 member countries have to make sure that the producers take responsibility for their clothing and other textile products.

This big change means brands – from huge ones like Zara and H&M to smaller shops – have to pay fees under EPR in Europe to help cover the costs of collecting, sorting, and recycling old clothes and textiles. France and the Netherlands have been trying out EPR for a while, but this EU-wide rule, which starts rolling out in 2026, is a group effort to move toward a circular economy. This article looks at what these new rules are all about, how they’ll impact businesses, and what they mean for the textile business in Europe going forward.

What EPR in Europe means for the textile sector

In the EU, we toss out over 5 million tons of textiles each year. A lot of this comes from fast fashion – cheap clothes that don’t last. They end up overflowing landfills and hurting the environment, causing around 2-10% of global CO2 emissions and adding to microplastic mess. The goal is to advance sustainable textiles for the environment by cutting down on what goes to landfills, reducing microplastic problems, and lowering emissions.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is all about making the people who make, bring in, or sell stuff take care of what happens to their products after we’re done with them, especially when it comes to the environment. In the textile sector, like clothing, shoes, sheets, and curtains, this means they need to pay for and arrange how these items are collected, sorted, and recycled. In the EU, EPR textiles basically says, If you sell it, you help pay for what happens to it at the end. It’s part of the EU textile strategy and overall textile rules. If you’re selling to customers in Europe, even online from another country, you’ll need to follow these rules. The rules are published in the Official EU Journal and are being put in place across textile markets in Europe.

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What is the Official EU Journal

The Official EU Journal (Official Journal of the European Union) is the EU’s official record book. It’s where all the important stuff like laws and rules get printed. Once it’s in there, it’s official, and that’s the version everyone uses to make sure they’re following the rules and staying up-to-date.

What exactly counts as EPR textiles

For EPR textiles, the EU has a pretty straightforward way of deciding what counts as textiles for their rules. If it’s clothes, shoes, or stuff like bedding and curtains that you’d find in most homes, it’s included. Things made for specific industries or medical uses usually aren’t. The official rules are in the Waste Framework Directive, and they refer to the EU’s product list. You don’t need to know those codes to do business, but your team that handles rules and customs will use them to figure out if what you’re selling falls under the new EU textile regulations on sustainable textiles. This whole thing helps the EU textile strategy for clothes that are good for the Earth since it makes companies pay for collecting, sorting and reusing across textiles Europe – a core goal of EPR in Europe.

The Council and Parliament both gave the thumbs up, and now it’s in the Official EU Journal. That’s the place to check if you want to know exactly what it covers and see any changes down the road.

Why the EU textile strategy targets fast fashion

The EU textile strategy part of its Circular Economy Action Plan, focuses on clothes that don’t last long. Fast fashion creates a lot of waste. From 2020–2025, lawmakers worked on required actions. With the 2025 approval, things should really get moving. EPR  textiles makes prices that help clothes that are built to last and can be recycled.

To put these ideas to work, Europe’s EPR has simple plans. These make companies pay for the collection, sorting, and recycling of stuff, with fees that reward designs that are easy to fix and recycle. These steps go hand in hand with ecodesign/Digital Product Passport actions as part of the bigger EU textile strategy. After Parliament says okay in September 2025, the law gets printed, starts 20 days later, and countries then have about 2 years to get things running. Small businesses might get an extra year in some situations.

This plan makes sure we keep the current rule about sorting textiles separately (which is EU-wide from Jan 1, 2025). This way, fees will actually help us collect more used clothes of better quality. Plus, rules for online stores and sellers will deal with the e-commerce that pushes super-fast fashion. All this should help us cut down on waste and make clothes last longer across textiles Europe.

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Scope of textiles in Europe covered by EPR

The revised rules change Directive 2008/98/EC and apply to lots of EU textile products. Mattresses might be included by some countries. If you’re a seller outside the EU shipping here via online marketplaces, these rules count for you too. Having the same definitions for stuff will help avoid confusion across textiles Europe markets and make compliance with EPR in Europe clearer for cross-border sellers.
When we talk about EU textile rules, we’re mostly talking about clothes, shoes, and stuff you’d find around the house like sheets, towels, and curtains that are sold in Europe. Usually, this doesn’t cover things like special materials used in factories or hospitals; those aren’t usually sold in regular stores. To know exactly what’s covered, what kind of stuff it applies to and to stay updated, you’ll have to check out the Official EU Journal’s records. These documents use special codes that customs and textile sector’s use.
Since textile collection will be required in 2025, countries in the EU are getting their registration sorted out with Producer Responsibility Organizations in the textile sector. They’re also making sure declarations are based on weight and materials, and that online sellers check the EPR textiles obligations before selling. Some countries like France and the Netherlands, already have systems for environment-fees and adjustments – these are working as examples as the EU’s common rules are put in place.

Who is the producer in the textile sector

When it comes to EPR textiles’ rules, the producer is basically whoever puts the textile product on the EU market first and pays for its end-of-life handling. This usually means an EU-based manufacturer or brand that sells clothes, shoes, or home fabrics. It also covers EU importers acting as Importer of Record for non-EU goods sold in textiles Europe’s channels.

If you’re selling directly to consumers in the EU through an online store, you’re seen as a producer if that’s what the local laws say. And if a seller doesn’t follow the rules, some textile in Europe might consider the online marketplace as the producer for those items.

Now, if you’re just storing, picking, and shipping stuff without owning it (like a fulfillment or third-party logistics provider), you’re not the producer. But you generally need to get your client’s EPR registration numbers before you can work with them. These definitions follow the EU’s plan for making textiles sustainable – a key part of EPR in Europe – and you can find them in the updates to the Waste Framework Directive published in the EU’s official journal.

Here’s a special situation: if a brand outside the EU sells directly to customers and uses a European third-party logistics provider without any EU company taking ownership, that non-EU brand is considered the producer under EU textile rules. They have to sign up with a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), pick an official representative if needed, and pass on identification numbers to their logistics partners and marketplaces.

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Timeline 2026 – 2029 for registration and rollout

Some countries, such as the Netherlands, are shooting for everyone to comply by January 2025, but the EU rules let countries take their time to get on board.

Eco-fees and eco-modulation in textiles Europe

Producers pay fees to PROs, which take care of collection via recycling. These fees change from country to country. But they are based on how much textile stuff is sold. For example, in France, the fees now go from €0.01 for items easy on the eco-system to €0.35 for man-made stuff that’s hard to recycle.

Eco-modulation changes fees based on environmental impact. Materials that last and can be recycled, such as organic cotton, might have lower fees. But items such as cheap, trendy polyester mixes could see fees rise by 200% to reduce waste. The main thing is for textiles to be made sustainably from the start.

Reporting for sustainable textiles and the digital product passport

Yearly reports need to show how much stuff got sold and where it all came from. Keep records ready for the Digital Product Passport that’s coming with the ESPR. If you report things the same way each time, it’ll be easy for audits, selling in different countries, and keeping things under control on the market. The Official EU Journal will show you how to format things once the rules are out.

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Penalties and enforcement across the union

If you don’t follow the rules, you could get hit with big fines. Expect penalties up to 4% of your EU sales, kind of like how GDPR works. Regulators will keep a close eye on online shops and packages coming from other countries. Online marketplaces, you’ve gotta make sure your sellers are following the rules for textiles Europe.

Financial and tax implications for textiles Europe

EPR fees are like paying for trash pickup, not regular taxes, which matters for businesses. In places like France, these fees often don’t include VAT. Companies can usually get that VAT back as a business expense, like they do with shipping costs. So, if a brand pays €100,000 in EPR fees with a 20% VAT in France, they could get €20,000 back, as long as the fees are tied to sales that are taxed.

Usually, companies can deduct EPR contributions as operating costs, which could cut their tax bill by 20-30%, give or take, depending on the country. Spending money on materials that are sustainable could also get you some research and development tax breaks in some countries, cutting costs even more. Still, things can get tricky, particularly if you’re trading across borders. Online sellers using the EU’s One-Stop-Shop for VAT need to include EPR fees in their reports and split costs by each market under EPR in Europe, and brands outside the EU might need to get fiscal representatives to handle compliance.

Not paying EPR fees? That could get you audited. Tax people might think you’re hiding income, and that means fines or disagreements, especially if you’re a big company that ships stuff all over the place.

Typical mistakes to avoid

• Applying one uniform tariff to all materials without modulation.
• Ignoring marketplace sales when calculating placed-on-market volumes.
• Reporting units without weights or clear SKU mapping.
• Omitting fiscal representation for non-EU entities.

Making rules the same gets rid of reasons to send stuff through places with not-so-good rules. It makes things fair for brands working all over Textiles Europe.

Challenges and opportunities for businesses

For big companies such as Inditex (Zara) and H&M, EPR might tack on an extra €1-2 billion each year in costs across the EU. This could squeeze profits in a market where it’s already tough to compete. Smaller brands might have a hard time with the paperwork, even though tiny businesses get a break. Online stores also face extra heat as middlemen; they have to be sure that other sellers are following the rules.

But, EPR also gives some cool chances. Under EPR in Europe, it pushes folks to come up with new green stuff and ways to recycle. The EU’s recycle biz for clothes could hit €5 billion by 2030. Brands that go green fast—like using old fibers or making stuff that lasts—might pay less and get more fans. Some might even get green loans, getting cash at better rates by going green.

Practical steps to comply and control costs

• Map SKUs by material, weight, and destination markets by Q1 2026.
• Register with national PROs and verify contracts per country.
• Build reporting aligned with the Digital Product Passport fields.
• Model eco-modulation scenarios to reduce future fees.
• Prepare VAT recovery and corporate tax documentation.
• Audit marketplace listings for correct producer identification.

Looking ahead: a greener textile industry

The EU’s new rule about textile waste is a big deal. It means that by 2028, clothing companies have to be responsible for what happens to their products, even after they’re sold – the core idea behind EPR in Europe.
Brands will have to change how they make clothes, thinking about the whole process to try to cut down on waste and avoid getting fined. You might see some cheap, trendy clothes get more expensive. But on the bright side, there should be more eco-friendly choices out there.
If you own a clothing business, now is the time to get ready. Check your suppliers, figure out how this will impact your wallet, and put money into ways to be more eco-friendly. This isn’t just about following the rules. It’s about making the clothing industry more sustainable and rewarding companies that design better products.

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