EU forced-labour ban: Commission starts sector training, textiles included
From 14 September the European Commission began running preparatory webinars on Regulation (EU) 2024/3015, which prohibits products made with forced labour on the EU market, with dedicated SME sessions and sector sessions covering textiles, solar, electronics and semiconductors, agri-food, automotive and fisheries. The regulation applies from 14 December 2027, the same date the single submission point for reporting suspected violations goes live. A finding triggers an EU-wide prohibition on the specific product, withdrawal of goods already distributed, removal of online listings, and mandatory disposal — with no de minimis exception.
Who it affects
Importers and brands sourcing cotton, yarn or finished garments from regions under forced-labour scrutiny, and any company whose supply-chain map stops at the first tier.
How it affects
The remedy is what makes this different from every other due-diligence rule: a finding means the goods are destroyed, not merely pulled from sale, and there is no minimum quantity below which it does not apply. December 2027 sounds far away, but the work it requires — tracing cotton back to its growing region and keeping product-level evidence files — takes more than one season to build. The textiles session is the place to see what the Commission expects that evidence to look like.
The DPP technical rulebook is complete — textile rules still pending
On 16 September CEN-CENELEC published EN 18239:2026, on access-rights management, information-system security and business confidentiality, and EN 18246:2026, on data authentication, reliability and integrity. Together with the six standards released in May, they complete the first set of eight horizontal Digital Product Passport system standards from Joint Technical Committee JTC 24, covering unique identifiers, data carriers such as QR, NFC and RFID, APIs and data exchange, access control, security and data integrity. The textile-specific requirements still depend on the ESPR delegated act, expected in 2027, with obligations phased from 2028.
Who it affects
Brands and manufacturers choosing a product-passport software vendor, and the IT or product-data people who will have to answer whether the tool they bought actually implements the standards.
How it affects
The technical backbone is now fixed even though the textile content is not, which turns a vague future obligation into a concrete procurement question you can ask today: does this platform implement all eight EN 18xxx standards, and can it show how. Buying a passport tool that handles identifiers but not access rights or data integrity means paying twice when the textile delegated act lands.
EFRAG tours the world with the reporting standard for non-EU groups
EFRAG spent the week presenting the ESRS-40a exposure draft outside Europe, with sessions in Mexico on 14 September, Korea on 16 September and the United States, hosted with AmCham EU, on 17 September, followed by Brazil, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom later in the month. ESRS-40a is the standard that non-EU parent companies meeting the Article 40a thresholds of the Accounting Directive will use to report on their EU activities. The public consultation closes on 31 October 2026, EFRAG delivers technical advice to the Commission in January 2027, the first reporting year is 2028 and the first reports appear in 2029.
Source:
EFRAG, 1 Sep 2026
Who it affects
European subsidiaries and sourcing offices of non-EU fashion groups, which is a large share of the brands buying from European manufacturers, and anyone who will be asked to feed data into a parent company's first EU report.
How it affects
The consultation window is the only point at which the data a non-EU parent will have to collect is still negotiable, and it closes on 31 October. After January 2027 the shape is set and the requests start travelling down the chain to European suppliers. Reading the draft now is also the cheapest way to find out which of your customers will be in scope in 2028.
EURATEX asks Brussels for customs enforcement, not new strategies
Three days after Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address on 16 September, the European textile federation said the commitments to rebalance trade and cut bureaucracy still lack urgency. It put numbers to the position: a sector of €166 billion turnover, 1.2 million jobs and nearly 200,000 companies, with imports of €122 billion against €61 billion of exports, turnover down 3.0% in textiles and 4.2% in clothing in the first quarter of 2026, an EU-China trade deficit running near €1 billion a day, and low-value parcel volumes four times their 2022 level at an average import price below €9 per item.
Who it affects
European manufacturers and converters competing against sub-€9 imported items, and brands whose decision to keep production in Europe turns on energy and compliance costs.
How it affects
This is a lobbying position, not a decision, and worth reading as such. What it signals is the direction of travel: the sector is not asking for fewer rules but for consistent enforcement at the border, including a handling fee of around €10 per parcel on top of the €3 customs duty that started in July. Those asks are the ones most likely to surface in the Circular Economy Act expected at the end of this year.
Cotton eases on Brazil's record crop, but is still 30% above last year
Cotton slipped to 84.87 US cents per pound on 14 September, its lowest level since August, down 0.5% over four weeks but still 30.6% higher than a year earlier. The pressure comes from supply and weak demand rather than from the United States crop: Brazil is producing a record harvest of more than 4.1 million tonnes with exports up 19% year on year, while China, the world's largest consumer, imported just 80,000 tonnes in August, 12.1% less than in July. The US harvest was running ahead of both last year and the five-year average, at 17% complete.
Who it affects
Spinners and weavers buying cotton for next season, and brands whose cost sheets were built when the fibre was near its recent highs.
How it affects
This is a commodity story, not a regulatory one, and the four-week dip matters far less than the yearly comparison: cotton is still roughly a third more expensive than it was in 2025. That is the backdrop against which recycled and biobased alternatives get costed, and a year of elevated natural-fibre prices does more to change a material mix than most sustainability targets do.