7.1 Three cumulative conditions
Relevant commodities and products may not be placed on the market, made available on the market or exported unless they meet all of the following conditions (Article 3):
| Condition | Content | Where it is set out |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Deforestation-free | Produced on land not deforested after 31/12/2020; wood harvested without inducing degradation after that date | Article 2, points 3 to 13; Guidance, section 11 |
| (b) Legal | Produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production | Article 2, point 40; Guidance, section 6 |
| (c) Declared | Covered by a due diligence statement, or by a simplified statement where one is required | Articles 4 and 4a and Annexes II and III |
The three conditions stand on their own: each must be satisfied separately, and a single one missing is enough to require the operator to refrain (Guidance, section 6; FAQ 1.29). An area with no deforestation at all, but under an active environmental embargo or without land use rights, does not yield a compliant product. Nor does an area that is perfectly legal but was cleared with a permit in 2022.
7.2 Three moments when the prohibition bites
The prohibition catches three distinct acts:
- placing on the market — the first making available in the EU, whether by import (release for free circulation) or by production within the Union;
- making available on the market — each subsequent supply within the EU;
- exporting — leaving the EU under the customs procedure of export.
The same product may therefore create obligations for several actors in sequence, but at different intensities (Chapter 8).
7.3 When part of the lot is non-compliant
If part of a product is not compliant, that part must be identified and separated before the product is placed on the market. Where that is impossible — because the material has been mixed — the whole product is non-compliant. The FAQ example is blunt: if bulk commodities from several hundred plots have been combined and a single plot was deforested after 2020, the entire lot is non-compliant (FAQ 1.5).
7.4 Products produced before entry into force
The Regulation does not apply to products whose commodity was produced before 29/06/2023 (Article 1(2)). The relevant date is the date the commodity was produced — as a rule the harvest; for cattle, the birth. The burden of proof lies with the operator, who must keep documents showing the date (FAQ 8.3). Special rules apply to wood covered by the EUTR (Chapter 16).