What do I do with clothing and textile stock already in place when the rules take effect?

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

Stock that is already in the warehouse now raises a question that the ESPR itself does not answer with a straightforward response: does the obligation apply to products that have already been manufactured and imported before the rules come into force, or only to what is placed on the market thereafter? Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 addresses the subject matter and scope in general terms in Article 1, but the precise transition from "old" to "new" stock is determined per product category through the delegated acts that are drawn up pursuant to Article 18 (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). For clothing and textiles, that act does not yet exist. What can be said is how a company prepares sensibly for it without waiting for a text that does not yet exist.

Knowing which stock was produced or imported when

For a company with ten to one hundred employees, this means above all: keeping records in order. When a product is placed on the market — the date of production, import or first sale — will possibly determine whether the passport is mandatory or not. Anyone who cannot now demonstrate this per collection or batch will be in a weaker position when the rules come into force than someone who can.

Make a distinction between stock destined for the EU market and stock destined elsewhere

Companies that also sell outside the EU are well advised to be able to split stock by destination. It is conceivable that an obligation applies only to products that are actually placed on the EU market; stock that goes to a warehouse outside the EU may then fall outside it. Without a system that records that distinction, it is difficult to prove that distinction afterwards.

Do not anticipate obligations that are not yet established

Some companies choose to have passports drawn up now for existing stock, as a precaution. This can be wise, but it is not an obligation as long as the delegated act for clothing and textiles has not been published. What does make sense is described on the page about what can I do now whilst the rules are not yet final.

Where things go wrong in practice

No production date per batch. A wholesaler has thousands of units in stock, purchased from different suppliers over multiple seasons, without the production or import date being recorded per batch. If the rules come into force and a transition point emerges, it is no longer possible to reconstruct which part of the stock falls before or after it.

Stock that is "coincidentally" marked down before the deadline. Some companies are considering moving stock quickly just before an obligation comes into force, to escape the rules. This is not a guarantee that it will work — the regulation may determine based on when the product is placed on the market, not when it is sold to the consumer — and it does result in a decision that is difficult to justify afterwards.

Confusion between destroying and simply leaving in place. Stock that does not sell is sometimes destroyed to make room, without thinking about whether that will still be possible without further ado. That question is separate from the product passport, but is often viewed by companies together with the implementation of the new rules. More on this can be found on the page about may I still destroy unsold clothing and textile stock.

Confusion about second-hand and return flows. Stock that comes back through returns or is resold as second-hand is not always recorded separately. In a later inspection, it is then unclear whether a product was "placed on the market" newly or circulates as second-hand, while that distinction may be relevant. See the page about does the product passport also apply to second-hand clothing and returns.

Confusion about what "placing on the market" precisely means for stock in an EU warehouse. An importer who has stock in a European distribution centre but only supplies shops months or years later often does not know which moment counts: the moment of import, or the moment of actual delivery to the customer. This distinction has not yet been established for clothing and textiles, and it is therefore not possible to say what will apply.

What you can record

• An overview per stock batch of production date, import date and country of origin, so that it can be traced afterwards when a product was actually placed on the market.
• A separation in the stock administration between products intended for the EU market and products intended for markets outside it, with a fixed procedure for how that separation is made and maintained.
• A file of supplier information per batch: who the manufacturer or importer is, and what data that batch already provides on material composition and origin. This is the same information that will later be needed for a passport, and collecting it now will save time once the obligation becomes concrete.
• An internal agreement on discounting or disposing of old stock, with a clear reason that is not solely motivated by the desire to avoid an obligation that is not even established yet.
• A note of the source and date of every assumption the company already makes about the transitional rules, so that when the delegated act is published it can be quickly checked whether that assumption still holds.
• An overview of returns and second-hand flows, separate from the "regular" stock, with a note of how those products were received.

When drawing up such a file, it is useful to also already look at what should I pay attention to when choosing a supplier for the product passport, so that the data now collected can later be transferred to a passport system without double work. A fixed template for stock administration prevents each collection from being recorded in a different way, and makes it easier to quickly show a complete overview in the event of an inspection.