EUDR due diligence statement: who files it, what goes in it, and by when

The due diligence statement is the electronic document through which a business tells the EU authorities that it checked a product against EUDR, the EU Deforestation Regulation, and found no or only a negligible risk. It is submitted in the EU Information System the Commission runs (Art. 4(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 33(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 33, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). What EUDR requires of a business apart from the statement, and which products it covers, is in EUDR; this page is about the statement.

Only the operator files a statement, and each other role keeps the number instead

Operators file. Everybody else in the chain either files something lighter or keeps records. The table shows who files what.

A customs representative or a freight forwarder that does not own the goods is not an operator, and a consumer who buys online is never one, even when the customs declaration names the consumer as importer (Commission guidance C/2026/3896; FAQ 3.15, 3.19). A downstream operator or trader that is not an SME also registers in the Information System (Art. 5(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 5, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

An operator outside the EU files with an EORI number, or through an EU authorised representative

A business outside the EU that releases the goods for free circulation is itself an operator. It gets access to the Information System in that role only with a valid EORI number issued by an EU country or, for Northern Ireland, by the United Kingdom (XI) (FAQ 3.7). Without an EU or XI EORI number it does not lodge the import declaration, so it does not file a statement. An operator may mandate an authorised representative, who must be established in the EU, to file for it (Art. 6(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 6, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 2(22)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 2, point 22Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The EORI number guide covers how a business outside the EU gets one.

The EU business that is the first to make the product available is an operator too, by Art. 7Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 7Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.. The Commission’s FAQ gives the example of a business outside the EU that imports cocoa beans and supplies an EU chocolate maker: both are operators, and both exercise due diligence and submit a statement (FAQ 3.7). The Commission’s guidance says the EU business’s duty comes on top of the duty of the operator outside the Union (C/2026/3896). So the EU business does its own due diligence and files its own statement. The Regulation has no rule that lets one operator rely on another operator’s statement, so the supplier’s data can serve as the EU business’s evidence under Art. 9(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 9, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., but not as a replacement for its own statement.

In online sales, the operator is the business that actually supplies the product: the Commission’s guidance lists “manufacturer, seller, online retailer or fulfilment service provider” (C/2026/3896). An online marketplace that only brings buyer and seller together has no duty under EUDR. A provider that also sells or ships the product itself is judged by what it does in each sale (FAQ 3.18).

The statement holds the five items of Annex II

The Regulation fixes what the statement contains in Annex II. The numbering skips point 4, which Regulation (EU) 2025/2650Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, amending the EU Deforestation RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. deleted (Reg. 2025/2650 Annex I). The five items that remain:

• Point 1, the operator. Name and address and, for goods entering or leaving the EU market, the EORI number.
• Point 2, the product. The customs code, a free-text description with the trade name and, where applicable, the full scientific name, and the quantity. For an import or an export the quantity is in kilograms of net mass and, where it applies, the supplementary unit of the customs tariff. In other cases it is net mass with a percentage estimate or deviation, or volume, or number of items.
• Point 3, the origin. The country of production and the geolocation of all plots of land where the commodities were produced; for cattle products, of all establishments where the cattle were kept. Plots in different countries are entered separately for each country (FAQ 7.13).
• Point 5, the confirmation. A fixed text: “By submitting this due diligence statement the operator confirms that due diligence in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1115Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)The whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. was carried out and that no or only a negligible risk was found that the relevant products do not comply with Article 3Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., point (a) or (b), of that Regulation.”
• Point 6, the signature, in the format “Signed for and on behalf of: Date: Name and function: Signature:”.

By making the statement available, the operator takes responsibility for the product complying with Art. 3Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. (Art. 4(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The statement also states a quantity: the volume placed on the market must be covered by a statement, and the Commission’s FAQ adds that a product must not be covered by several statements submitted by the same person (FAQ 5.19).

Geolocation is the part that needs your supplier: coordinates to six decimals, polygons above four hectares

Geolocation is the location of a plot of land, given as latitude and longitude with at least six decimal digits. For a plot of more than four hectares used for any commodity other than cattle, the statement carries a polygon with enough points to describe the perimeter (Art. 2(28)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 2, point 28Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). For cattle and for products fed with relevant products, the location refers to every establishment where the cattle were kept (Art. 9(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 9, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Deforestation or forest degradation on a plot disqualifies the commodities from it, and they cannot be placed on the market (Art. 9(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 9, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

Three points the sources settle:

• Low-risk countries do not remove it. The risk assessment and mitigation may be skipped when every commodity comes from a low-risk country, but only after the operator has assessed the complexity of the supply chain and the risk of circumvention or mixing, and it must keep the documents for the authority. The Commission says there is no exception for geolocation (Art. 13(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 13, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., FAQ 1.28). The list of low-risk and high-risk countries is in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1093.
• A postal address is enough only for micro or small primary operators. They may give the postal address of the plot or of the establishment instead (Art. 4a(5)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4a, paragraph 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• The system takes coordinates three ways. The Commission’s description says an operator can draw the areas on a map, enter coordinates one by one, or enter them in bulk. A file upload uses the GeoJSON format with WGS-84 coordinates (FAQ 7.8).

The statement declares the result of due diligence, which is done before it

The statement is the last step. Before submitting it the operator collects, and keeps for five years, the information of Art. 9(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 9, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.: the description, the quantity, the country and plots of production, the suppliers and the buyers, and evidence that the product is deforestation-free and was produced legally (Art. 8(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 8, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 8(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 8, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). It assesses the risk against the criteria of Art. 10(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 10, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. and may place the product on the market only if the risk is none or negligible; where it is not, the operator adopts mitigation measures first (Art. 4(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 11(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 11, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). If the operator learns of new information that a product it placed may not comply, it informs the competent authorities and its buyers at once (Art. 4(5)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4, paragraph 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The steps and the evidence are in EUDR.

The Information System issues a reference number and a verification number once its risk check is done

The Commission built the system under Art. 33(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 33, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.. It was launched on 4 December 2024 (Reg. 2025/2650 recital 2). The Commission first made it an independent module of the TRACES platform (Implementing Regulation 2024/3084 as first adopted, listed in the sources); the 2026 amendment deleted that reference, so the law no longer names TRACES (Reg. 2026/1565 recital 6, Art. 2(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 2, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Access is for registered users who sign in with EU Login; each user creates one account and may hold several roles under it (Art. 10(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 10, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The Commission also offers a machine-to-machine connection (API) for filing in bulk (Art. 9(e)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 9, point (e)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

What happens after you submit:

1. Risk profiling. Every statement gets an automated risk check. The risk status is visible to the authorities only, not to you (Art. 6(3)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 6, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
2. The numbers. Without undue delay after that check, the system assigns a reference number to the statement and a verification number, a security number that protects the data in it, and makes both available to you (Art. 3(e)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 3, point (e)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 3(f)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 3, point (f)Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 7(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 7, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 7(2)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 7, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
3. A possible hold. An authority may delay the numbers to check whether the products comply, for three working days, 72 hours for perishable products, and may extend that by further periods of three working days (Art. 7(3)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 7, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 17(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 17, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Where the system flags a high risk, the authority suspends the placing of the product on the market (Art. 17(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 17, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
4. A possible rejection. An authority may reject a statement during that period, but no longer once you have your reference number. A product in a rejected statement is treated as not covered by a statement (Art. 8Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 8Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

You can check that a reference number and its verification number are valid in the system, one by one or from a CSV file (FAQ 7.25).

A statement can be amended or withdrawn for 72 hours, and then it is fixed

The system lets you amend or withdraw a statement within 72 hours after the reference number is made available. After that window you cannot, and you cannot at all once any of these has happened: the products were placed on the market or exported (any product the statement covers); the reference number was given to customs before release; or an authority told you it will check the statement, for the length of the check. An authority may extend the window by up to 8 calendar days, on a reasoned request, only where the window has expired and none of those events has happened. An amended statement is risk-checked again as a whole (Art. 5(1)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 5, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 5(3)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 5, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 5(4)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 5, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 5(5)Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 5, paragraph 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

If the system is unavailable for more than 60 minutes without notice, the Commission must have published, by 30 December 2026, the contingency measures. They include a contingency reference number to cover the products whose statement could not be submitted (Art. 15aImplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 15aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The reference number goes to customs before release and to each business you supply

To customs. The reference number must be made available to customs before the goods are released for free circulation or exported. The person lodging the customs declaration, the declarant, gives it to customs, so the statement has to be submitted, and the number obtained, before the declaration is lodged (Art. 26(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 26, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.; FAQ 5.20). A customs representative who lodges the declaration for you therefore needs the number from you. One statement can be named in several declarations, and one declaration can name several statements (FAQ 5.20). The Commission’s FAQ finds no EUDR rule that puts the number on an invoice or a delivery note (FAQ 7.21).

Customs systems and the Information System are to be linked by an electronic interface by 1 December 2029 (Art. 28(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 28, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Until the interface is in place, customs cooperate with the competent authority and exchange information with it, and the authority itself suspends the product by an interim measure (Art. 26(5)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 26, paragraph 5Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 27Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 27Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 17(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 17, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). From then on, customs suspend the release when the system shows that the authority wants the product checked first, and do not release a product the authority found non-compliant (Art. 26(7)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 26, paragraph 7Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 26(9)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 26, paragraph 9Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). A released product is not thereby proven compliant (Art. 26(10)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 26, paragraph 10Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

To each business you supply. The operator must give the reference numbers to the downstream operators and traders it supplies (Art. 4(7)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4, paragraph 7Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Only a business whose supplier is the operator has to record them (Art. 5(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 5, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). The Commission’s FAQ adds two points: no rule makes an operator give the number to a final consumer, and none makes it share the verification number, although a downstream business that is not an SME and verifies due diligence after a substantiated concern may ask its supplier for it (FAQ 3.6.1).

One statement can cover several shipments, for no more than a year

The Commission’s FAQ says a statement can cover several batches or shipments of several listed products, with these conditions (FAQ 5.19):

• The statement is submitted before any of the batches is placed on the market or exported, and all the quantity placed must be covered.
• When the quantity declared is used up, a new statement is needed for more.
• A statement should not cover shipments over a period longer than one year from submission, because the operator reviews its due diligence system at least yearly (Art. 12(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 12, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).
• A statement should in principle cover commodities that already exist. The furniture need not be made when the statement is filed, but the trees should already be harvested. The exception: an operator that sources from stable plots of land or establishments, with unchanged conditions of legality and no deforestation or forest degradation, can do its due diligence and submit the statement before harvest.
• The operator is responsible for every batch in the statement, and a problem with one can affect all.

The Information System limits one statement to 200 product lines and 25 MB with its geolocation data (FAQ 7.12, 7.16). For a file over the limit, the Commission suggests points instead of polygons for plots under four hectares and for cattle, and fewer corner points per polygon (FAQ 7.16). A user may group its own earlier statements (or, for an authorised representative, those it filed for the same operator) by submitting a new one that names them by their reference numbers; the new statement’s reference number then replaces theirs for customs and for the next business (Art. 8aImplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3084, EUDR information system (consolidated text of 15 October 2026)Article 8aClick opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

The dates in force today are 30 December 2026, and 30 June 2027 for some micro and small operators

These dates are in the consolidated text of 18 September 2026 of the Regulation, the latest one, which carries three amending acts: Regulation (EU) 2024/3234, Regulation (EU) 2025/2650Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, amending the EU Deforestation RegulationThe whole regulationClick opens the law on the EU Publications Office. and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102. The Commission’s regulation page gives the same dates. The 2024 act set the dates at 30 December 2025 and 30 June 2026. The 2025 act, which entered into force on 26 December 2025, moved them by another twelve months and changed the cut-off for the later date from 31 December 2020 to 31 December 2024 (Reg. 2024/3234 Art. 1(3); Reg. 2025/2650 Art. 1(25), Art. 2). It also introduced the downstream operator and the simplified declaration, which is why only the operator files a statement now.

For the Information System, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1565 entered into force on 17 July 2026. One change in it, that a statement is attributed to the authorities of the country where the operator is established, applies from 15 October 2026 (Reg. 2026/1565 Art. 1(2)(c), Art. 2).

A product that an operator placed on the market before the operator’s own date stays outside the Regulation, so no statement is needed. The operator must still gather adequately conclusive and verifiable evidence that the product was placed on the market before that date (C/2026/3896). Timber and timber products in the Annex to the EU Timber Regulation are the exception: if they were produced before 29 June 2023, the Timber Regulation keeps applying to them until 31 December 2029, and when placed on the market from 31 December 2029 they must comply with Art. 3 (Art. 37(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 37, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 37(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 37, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). How far the rule reaches down the chain is in the Commission’s guidance and in EUDR.

Which date an operator gets turns on its size. For the 30 June 2027 date, the Commission’s FAQ says what counts is whether the operator was established as a micro or small undertaking by 31 December 2024, judged by the size thresholds in force on that day (FAQ 3.10). Art. 38(3)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 38, paragraph 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. asks only whether the operator was established as such by that date. Size is otherwise set per financial year, and a change of class needs two consecutive years over or under the thresholds (FAQ 3.24). Keep the accounts that show your size at the end of 2024.

Selling a listed product without a statement is a breach of the prohibition

Art. 3Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 3Click opens the article on EUR-Lex. bars a listed product from the market, and from export, unless it is deforestation-free, legally produced and covered by a statement or a simplified declaration. An operator may not place or export a product where it could not complete the due diligence and the statement (Art. 4(4)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 4, paragraph 4Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.). Each EU country sets the penalties, and the Regulation fixes the floor: fines whose maximum for a legal person is at least 4% of its annual Union-wide turnover, confiscation of the products and of the revenue, and a temporary ban for serious or repeated infringements (Art. 25(1)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 25, paragraph 1Click opens the article on EUR-Lex., Art. 25(2)Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, EU Deforestation Regulation (consolidated text of 18 September 2026)Article 25, paragraph 2Click opens the article on EUR-Lex.).

What you can set aside