Overview

• The deforestation-free products regulation takes effect on December 30, 2025 for large companies and on June 30, 2026 for SMEs.
• It imposes strict due-diligence obligations requiring GPS coordinates of production sites, risk assessments and third-party audits with penalties including fines up to 4% of EU turnover, import bans and product seizures.
• Retailers and industry associations warn that the regulation's bureaucratic burdens could drive up costs and trigger shortages in commodities like coffee where compliance among farmers is currently around 20%.
• Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer have formally requested that the EU carve out domestic land as a 'zero-risk' category and postpone the regulation's application.
• Brussels insists it expects only limited impacts on food prices and stresses that the regulation will strengthen global forest protection without major consumer cost increases.