On 13 July, the European Commission adopted two measures that close out the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) simplification package first presented in May 2026: a Delegated Act updating the product scope in Annex I, and an Implementing Act setting the technical rules for the EUDR Information System. Together with the legislative amendment agreed by co-legislators in December 2025, these are the final pieces companies need before the Regulation begins to apply at the end of this year. Here is what changed, what stayed the same, and what operators should be doing now.

The product scope got narrower in some places, wider in others

The Delegated Act removes several product categories from Annex I following stakeholder consultation: cattle hides, skins and leather, re-treaded tyres, soybeans for sowing, articles of vulcanised rubber, conveyor and transmission belts, and aircraft and motor vehicle seats. If your due diligence program has been tracking these categories, they are coming off your list.

At the same time, the Commission added three new items: soluble coffee, certain palm oil derivatives, and frozen cattle tongues. Businesses get a runway here. Products newly added to scope only become subject to the Regulation from 30 December 2027, a full year after the Regulation's general application date.

One important clarification: this update changes which products derived from the seven covered commodities (cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood) are in scope. It does not touch the underlying list of commodities itself. If your company sources or processes any of those seven, EUDR still applies to you; this update just resets which finished and semi-finished goods trigger due diligence obligations.

The Delegated Act also draws some helpful boundaries: samples and products used purely for analysis, examination or testing fall outside the Regulation entirely, and there are now targeted exemptions for waste, used and second-hand products, packaging material, and products used in manufacturing medicinal products. The Act still needs to clear scrutiny by the European Parliament and Council before it formally enters into force, so treat this as high-confidence guidance rather than final law for the moment.

The Information System gets simplified declarations and better APIs

The Implementing Act sets the technical rules for the EUDR Information System, the platform where due diligence statements and simplified declarations get filed. The headline changes are simplified declarations for micro and small primary operators and updated technical specifications for the automated APIs that larger operators and trade associations use to file at scale.

The system itself reopened at the end of June after technical updates, and the Commission says more functionality is coming later this summer, alongside regular documentation updates and training sessions starting at the end of July. If your team hasn't logged into the system since it reopened, now is a good time to check that your account and API integration still behave as expected.

The compliance calendar, in one place

With this package finalized, the application dates are now set:

• 30 December 2026 — large and medium-sized operators, plus micro and small operators already covered by the EU Timber Regulation

• 30 June 2027 — all other micro and small operators

• 30 December 2027 — products newly added to Annex I by this Delegated Act (soluble coffee, palm oil derivatives, frozen cattle tongues)

The Commission also formally adopted its EUDR Guidance document in all EU languages (it had previously been English-only), alongside an updated FAQ. Both are worth a read if your legal or compliance team has been working from the English guidance and needs to brief non-English-speaking country teams.

What this means for your supply chain program

If your due diligence mapping already covers the seven core commodities, the practical work now is narrower than it sounds: reconcile your product catalog against the revised Annex I, confirm whether any SKUs fall into the newly exempted categories (leather, tyres, rubber articles, transport seats), and flag anything that will newly require a due diligence statement from December 2027 (soluble coffee, palm oil derivatives, frozen cattle tongues). Companies that source cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy or wood, directly or through a supplier, should treat this as confirmation that the clock to 30 December 2026 is real and not likely to move again.

We'll keep tracking the Parliament and Council scrutiny period for the Delegated Act and flag if anything changes before it enters into force.