What is the EU Deforestation Regulation?

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. The EU Deforestation Regulation, or "EUDR". Restricts the EU market to commodities and products that are deforestation-free and produced in line with the laws of the country of production. It targets seven commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, wood) and a long list of derived products in Annex I.

The regulation entered into force on 29 June 2023 (twenty days after OJ publication on 9 June 2023). It has been amended twice:

• Reg. (EU) 2024/3234 (Dec 2024). First postponement.
• Reg. (EU) 2025/2650 (Dec 2025). Second postponement plus a substantive simplification (Annex II point 4 deleted; downstream operators and non-SME traders no longer file DDS).

Why it exists

EU consumption is one of the world's largest drivers of land-use change abroad. The regulation pushes the proof obligation onto the seller: if you want to place a covered commodity on the EU market, you owe the regulator three things. That the underlying land was deforestation-free after 31 December 2020, that production was lawful in the country of origin, and that you can pinpoint the plot of land on the map.

Legal basis: Art. 192(1) TFEU (environment).

The three tests

For every shipment, all three answers must be "yes":

1. Deforestation-free. No human-induced conversion of forest to non-forest land use on the plot after 31 December 2020 (Art. 2(13)).
2. Lawful production. The commodity was produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production (Art. 2(40), Art. 3(b)).
3. Geolocation. Every plot is identified by polygon (or in narrow cases a point) at WGS84 6-decimal precision (Art. 9(1)(d) + Art. 2(28)). See geolocation requirements.

Together, these produce the Due Diligence Statement.

Who must comply

After the 2025/2650 amendment the picture simplified:

• Operator: first to place the product on the EU market, or to export it from the EU. Principal duty-bearer.- Downstream operator: operator further down the supply chain. Post-2025/2650 they do not file a fresh DDS; they reuse the upstream reference.- Non-SME trader: also no longer files a DDS; collects upstream reference numbers and retains them.- SME trader: lightweight regime; keeps traceability records of who they bought from and who they sold to.

See operator vs. Trader vs. Downstream.

What eudr.dev does and doesn't do

eudr.dev is operational tooling. An independent AI agent that produces signed Annex II Due Diligence Statements with content-addressed Earth-observation evidence. It is not a regulator, a certifier, or a TRACES submission portal. The full scope-of-service is at /legal/disclaimer.

See also

• Key dates and timeline
• The 7 commodities and HS codes
• The 3-step due-diligence process
• Country benchmarking
• Glossary

Authoritative sources

• Reg. (EU) 2023/1115 (CELEX: 32023R1115)
• Commission DG ENV deforestation portal
• Commission Q&A document (non-binding, updated periodically)

This page last changed on 2026-05-18. It describes the Regulation as it stood then; where a date or a code matters to a decision, check it against the EUR-Lex text it cites.