We indicated in a prior update that on October 21, 2025, the European Commission advised that the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will take effect as planned. Large and medium-sized companies must comply by December 30, 2025, but smaller operators will not need to comply until December 2026. Instead of another delay, the EU advised that there were simplifying reporting obligations and offering a six-month leniency period.
The official EU press release (IP/25/2464) can be found here:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2464
Since that October 21st announcement, there has been no further clarification with regards to what is meant by this:
“For large and medium companies, the date remains 30 December 2025 but to ensure a gradual phase-in of the rules, they will benefit from a grace period of six months for checks and enforcement.”
Our interpretation today is simply that:
- Large- and medium-sized companies are expected to comply with the EUDR requirements starting December 30, 2025.
- For the first six months of 2026, there will be no enforcement action taken or penalties assessed if errors are made when Operators or their agents import products in the EU.
Friesens continues to work with our suppliers (paper merchants and paper mills) to ensure that the required EUDR information/data will be available.
Please note that some paper mills will not be providing EUDR information/data until the end of December 2025. We expect that this could impact some titles/books that are produced prior to that time or in early 2026 (and planned by Publishers to ship those books/titles to the EU).
Friesens expects to be ready to provide EUDR information/data to customers as long as the mills provide the information/data.
