12.1 What the Regulation requires
Article 3(b) requires the product to have been produced in accordance with the "relevant legislation of the country of production". Article 2, point 40, defines that legislation as the laws concerning the legal status of the area of production across eight areas. Article 9(1)(h) requires adequately conclusive and verifiable information of that compliance, including any provision conferring the right to use the area for the purpose of production.
12.2 Two relevance filters
The Guidance (section 6.a) sets out two filters for deciding whether a law falls within the concept:
- The legal status of the area. It is not enough for the law to apply generally to the production process or to the chain; it must specifically affect or influence the legal status of the area where the commodity was produced.
- A link to the objectives of the EUDR. A law is also relevant where its content can be directly associated with halting deforestation and forest degradation in the context of tackling climate change and biodiversity loss.
Only the law of the country of production counts. If the soy is harvested in country A, crushed in country B and placed on the market in country C, only the legislation of country A matters (FAQ 1.29.1 and 3.3).
12.3 The eight areas and official examples
| Area (Article 2, point 40) | Illustrative examples from the Guidance (section 6.a) |
|---|---|
| (a) Land use rights | Laws on harvesting and production on the land and on land management; transfer of agricultural or forest land; leasing |
| (b) Environmental protection | Protected areas; nature protection and restoration; wildlife and biodiversity; endangered species; land improvement — always with a link to halting deforestation, reducing emissions or protecting biodiversity |
| (c) Forest-related rules, including forest management and biodiversity conservation, where directly related to wood harvesting | Forest protection and conservation and sustainable management; anti-deforestation laws; harvesting rights in areas with published legal limits |
| (d) Third parties' rights | Use and tenure rights affected by the production; traditional rights of indigenous peoples and local communities; mortgages and usufruct |
| (e) Labour rights | Rights of the people present in the area of production, to the extent that they are relevant to the objectives of the EUDR |
| (f) Human rights protected under international law | Rights to land, territories and resources; property rights; treaties and agreements between indigenous peoples and States |
| (g) Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), including as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples | Consent as the objective of consultation before projects affecting indigenous lands and resources, displacement and redress |
| (h) Tax, anti-corruption, trade and customs rules | Where they have a specific link to the objectives of the Regulation or, for trade and customs, where they relate specifically to the agricultural or timber sectors |
The Commission intends to create, by December 2026, a repository of relevant legislation, where producing countries can list their relevant laws in order to support operators under Article 9(1)(h) (Guidance, section 6.a; COM(2026) 191).
12.4 Proportionality in gathering evidence
The Guidance (section 6.b) calls for a risk-based approach:
- prioritise in-depth collection where the initial screening points to a higher risk of illegality;
- where the initial screening points to negligible risk, in-depth collection is not required — there is no need to collect exhaustive legal documentation systematically for each plot, to obtain individual land titles or to compile an exhaustive list of all the laws;
- national law decides whether a land title is needed: if the country does not require title in order to produce and sell agricultural products, the EUDR does not require it either (Guidance, section 6.b; FAQ 1.10);
- the operator must be able to explain the presence of certain documents and the absence of others.
Sources for initial screening: the country risk classification (Article 29), the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, and public reports on the country, the area or the chain.
Documents that may be collected, depending on each country's system: official documents and permits from government registers and platforms; contracts, including with indigenous peoples or local communities; information from public or private certification schemes; court decisions; impact assessments, management plans and environmental audit reports.
Additional useful documents: company policies and codes of conduct; a voluntary self-declaration by the producer; social responsibility agreements; reports of complaints or land conflicts.
12.5 How to assess the documents
All information must be analysed as a whole. As a rule, the operator must check (Guidance, section 6.b):
- whether the documents are consistent with one another and with other available information;
- what exactly each document proves;
- what system the document rests on (state control, independent audit and so on);
- the reliability and validity of each document, that is, how likely it is to be forged or unlawfully issued.
The risk of corruption (bribery, collusion, fraud) must be taken into account, drawing on recognised indices such as Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Where corruption is high, official documents may not be reliable on their own and call for additional verification — third-party verified systems, audits or forensic tracing technologies.
12.6 Mapping to Brazilian legislation
| Area | Brazilian rules of reference | Typical evidence per supplier/plot |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Land use | Federal Constitution; Civil Code (possession and ownership); Law 10,267/2001 (georeferencing of rural properties); Land Statute (leasing and sharecropping) | Title deed or proof of possession; CCIR (rural property registration certificate); certification in SIGEF; lease or sharecropping contracts; rural land tax (ITR) |
| (b) Environmental protection | Law 6,938/1981 (National Environmental Policy); Law 9,605/1998 and Decree 6,514/2008 (environmental offences and crimes); Law 9,985/2000 (protected areas system); Law 11,428/2006 (Atlantic Forest); state legislation | Checks against IBAMA and state embargo lists; no overlap with strictly protected conservation units; environmental permits where required |
| (c) Forest-related rules | Law 12,651/2012 and Decree 7,830/2012 (Rural Environmental Registry — CAR — and Environmental Regularisation Programmes); vegetation clearing permits; state forest codes and policies (for example Minas Gerais State Law 20,922/2013) | CAR receipt and status; analysis of permanent preservation areas and legal reserve; vegetation clearing permits (which do not displace the EUDR deforestation test); enrolment in a regularisation programme where applicable |
| (d) Third parties' rights | Federal Constitution, Article 231, and Article 68 of the Transitional Provisions (indigenous and quilombola lands); land legislation | No overlap with indigenous lands (FUNAI) or quilombola territories (INCRA); no recorded land conflicts |
| (e) Labour rights | Labour Code (CLT); NR-31 (rural work health and safety); Article 149 of the Penal Code (labour analogous to slavery) | Absence from the Register of Employers who have subjected workers to conditions analogous to slavery (the "dirty list"); evidence of labour and NR-31 compliance |
| (f) Human rights | Incorporated international treaties; Federal Constitution | No convictions or substantiated complaints linked to the area; conflict assessment |
| (g) FPIC | ILO Convention 169 (incorporated into Brazilian law); UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples | Evidence of consultation where production affects indigenous or traditional peoples |
| (h) Tax, anti-corruption, trade, customs | Law 12,846/2013 (Anti-Corruption Law); tax legislation (state VAT, rural social security contribution); export rules | Registration in good standing (taxpayer numbers, state producer registration); invoices evidencing origin; no relevant sanctions |
12.7 The limit: not every labour or tax law is "EUDR"
The labour, human rights and tax areas come in only to the extent that they are linked to the legal status of the area of production and to the objectives of the EUDR (Guidance, section 6.a). The EUDR does not turn every labour or tax citation against a farm into an automatic bar. But illegalities that affect the status of the area — such as illegal deforestation anywhere on the property — taint the legality of the property's entire production (FAQ 1.15, iii). The prohibition on products made with forced labour, in turn, has a regulation of its own (Chapter 22).