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1. From 19 July 2026, the destruction of unsold consumer products as listed in Annex VII shall be prohibited. This paragraph shall not apply to micro and small enterprises. This paragraph shall apply to medium-sized enterprises from 19 July 2030.

2. Economic operators that are not subject to the prohibition referred to in paragraph 1 shall not destroy unsold consumer products supplied to them with the purpose of circumventing that prohibition.

3. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 72 in order to amend Annex VII:

(a) to add new products, in order to take account of the environmental impacts of their destruction;

(b) to update the entries within product groups, in order to align them to modifications of their respective commodity codes or descriptions that are made in Annex I to Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87, where necessary.

4. When preparing a delegated act to be adopted pursuant to paragraph 3, point (a), the Commission shall:

(a) assess the prevalence and environmental impacts of the destruction of certain unsold consumer products;

(b) take into account the information disclosed by economic operators pursuant to Article 24(1);

(c) carry out an impact assessment based on best available evidence and analyses, and on additional studies as necessary. That delegated act shall specify its date of application and, where appropriate, any tiered measures or transitional measures or periods.

5. The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 72 to supplement this Regulation by setting out derogations from the prohibition of destruction of unsold consumer products listed in Annex VII where it is appropriate for any of the following reasons:

(a) health, hygiene and safety reasons;

(b) damage caused to products as a result of their handling, or detected after products have been returned, which cannot be repaired in a cost-effective manner;

(c) unfitness of products for the purpose for which they are intended, taking into account, where applicable, Union and national law and technical standards;

(d) non-acceptance of products offered for donation;

(e) unsuitability of products for preparing for reuse or for remanufacturing;

(f) unsaleability of products due to infringement of intellectual property rights, including counterfeit products;

(g) destruction is the option with the least negative environmental impacts.

Those delegated acts may also, where relevant, provide that the prohibition to destroy unsold consumer products referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article or the disclosure obligation set out in Article 24 apply to micro and small enterprises where there is sufficient evidence that such enterprises could be used to circumvent that prohibition or that obligation. The first delegated act referred to in the first subparagraph shall be adopted by 19 July 2025.