Dejan Jasnic · Co-founder & Compliance Lead, Trusty · 20+ years anti-fraud & compliance · ACFE Swiss Chapter Board
Most micro and small operators believe the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) gives them until 30 June 2027 to comply. That’s only true if two conditions in the EUDR timeline, namely two conditions in Article 38(3) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, are both met: (1) the operator was established as a micro or small undertaking by 31 December 2024, not merely small today, and (2) the products involved are not timber or timber products listed in the Annex to the old EU Timber Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 995/2010), which get no deferral at all regardless of size. Fail either condition and the deadline reverts to 30 December 2026, the same date as large and medium operators.
Ask almost any micro or small operator when the EU Deforestation Regulation starts applying to them and you will get the same answer: 30 June 2027. It is in every summary, every webinar slide, every newsletter that covered the December 2025 postponement.
It is also wrong for a large number of the businesses repeating it.
Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 did grant small operators an extra six months. But the deferral it granted is narrower than almost anyone realises, and the two conditions attached to it are quietly excluding thousands of companies that believe they are covered. Both conditions sit in a single sentence of Article 38(3). Most people have never read it.
Here is that sentence, and here is who it leaves behind.
date is yours?
Does the 30 June 2027 deferral apply to you? Use Trusty’s EUDR Obligations Checker to see which obligations and deadlines apply to your business.
Trap 1: The 31 December 2024 establishment cut-off
Article 38(3) defers the obligations to 30 June 2027 for operators who are natural persons or micro or small undertakings: “who were established as such by 31 December 2024.”
Read that last clause again, because it is the one that gets skipped.
The deferral is not a status you qualify for by being small today. It is a status you qualify for by having already been small on 31 December 2024. If your company was incorporated in 2025 or in 2026, you do not get the extra six months. Not for wood, not for cattle, not for cocoa, coffee, palm, rubber or soya. You are on 30 December 2026, exactly like a multinational.
This catches a very specific and very unlucky group: the new business. The trading company set up eighteen months ago. The startup that just began importing. The entity spun out of a restructuring in 2025. Every one of them is small, every one of them assumes the small-business timeline applies, and none of them qualify.
There is a second edge to this clause that is going to generate arguments. The wording is “established as such”, established as a micro or small undertaking. On the natural reading, a company that existed in 2023 but was medium-sized then, and has since shrunk below the thresholds, was not established as such by the cut-off date. If your headcount or turnover fell after 2024, do not assume you inherited the deferral. Get that one looked at properly before you plan around it.
Trap 2: Why EUTR Annex timber gets no EUDR deferral at all
This is the one we would put money on being the most missed provision in the entire amended Regulation.
That same sentence in Article 38(3) grants the deferral “except as regards the products covered in the Annex of Regulation No 995/2010”: the old EU Timber Regulation.
So for timber and timber products listed in the EUTR Annex, the 30 June 2027 date does not exist. It does not matter how small you are. It does not matter when you were established. A one-person joinery founded in 2009 and a large panel importer are on precisely the same date: 30 December 2026.
The Commission’s reasoning is that the timber sector has been carrying due diligence obligations since the EUTR applied in 2013, so it needs no additional runway. Whatever you think of that logic, it is the law, and its practical effect is blunt: the smallest wood businesses in Europe hit the wall first, alongside the biggest.
EUDR small business deadline by product type
Combine the two traps and the picture for a micro or small operator looks like this:
Non-wood commodities | Wood in the EUTR Annex | Wood in EUDR Annex I only | |
|---|---|---|---|
Established as such by 31 Dec 2024 | 30 June 2027 | 30 Dec 2026 | 30 June 2027 |
Established after 31 Dec 2024 | 30 Dec 2026 | 30 Dec 2026 | 30 Dec 2026 |
Only one cell in that table gives a wood business the later date, products that are in EUDR Annex I but outside the EUTR Annex. That is a narrow band, and if you are relying on it you had better be able to prove your product sits in it.
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Which common mistake confuses MSPO status with a later deadline?
A related confusion is worth killing off in the same breath.
The Regulation creates a lighter regime for micro or small primary operators (MSPOs), producers who grow, harvest or raise the goods themselves, are established in a country benchmarked as low risk, and place them directly on the EU market. Instead of a full due diligence statement, an MSPO submits a one-time simplified declaration and may give a postal address in place of geolocation coordinates. It must still exercise due diligence.
That is a genuine reduction in burden. It is not a delay.
MSPO status changes what you have to do. Article 38(3) changes when you have to start. They are separate tests with separate conditions, and qualifying for the first tells you nothing about the second. An MSPO founded in 2025 is filing its simplified declaration on 30 December 2026 like everyone else.
Two further points that catch producers out here. First, an MSPO established outside the EU can only reach the Information System with a valid EORI number issued by an EU Member State, no EORI, no filing, no market access. Second, an authorised representative appointed under Article 6 must be established in the Union, so a third-country producer cannot appoint a representative at home. And where a non-EU operator places goods on the EU market, Article 7 deems the first EU-established person in the chain to be an operator too, meaning two operators, both exercising due diligence, both filing. If you are that first EU customer, someone else’s simplified declaration does not discharge your obligation.
What to check this week
- Your incorporation date. Were you established as a micro or small undertaking on or before 31 December 2024? If not, your date is 30 December 2026.
- Your product codes. Are any of them in the Annex to Regulation 995/2010? If yes, your date is 30 December 2026 regardless of anything else.
- Your size history. Did you cross a threshold downward after 2024? Flag it for legal review rather than assuming the deferral.
- Your registration. Registration in the EU Information System is not instant, and neither is an EORI application if you need one.
- Your suppliers. If you are the first EU buyer from a non-EU producer, you are an operator in your own right under Article 7. Do not wait to discover this in January.
Four months is enough time to get geolocation data, supplier onboarding and Information System registration in order. It is not enough time to start in December.
Frequently asked questions
Most micro and small operators get until 30 June 2027, but only if they were established as a micro or small undertaking by 31 December 2024 and their products aren’t timber items listed in the old EU Timber Regulation Annex. If either condition fails, the deadline is 30 December 2026, the same date as large and medium operators.
No. Article 38(3) requires the operator to have already been established as a micro or small undertaking by 31 December 2024. Being small today doesn’t qualify a business incorporated after that date.
Not for products covered by the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 (the old EU Timber Regulation): for these, the deferral does not apply at all, regardless of company size or establishment date. The deadline for these products is 30 December 2026. Other wood products listed in EUDR Annex I follow the general rule for micro and small operators.
No. MSPO status changes what you have to file, a one-time simplified declaration instead of a full due diligence statement, not when you have to start complying. An MSPO must still exercise due diligence. The Article 38(3) deferral is a separate test with its own conditions.
This is genuinely unsettled. The wording “established as such by 31 December 2024” suggests a company that was medium-sized on that date, and has since shrunk, may not have been “established as” small in time to qualify. Get this reviewed by counsel rather than assuming the deferral applies.
Related reading: what changed in the regulation since December 2025, whether you are an operator or a trader, and EUDR compliance for SMEs that keep their direct suppliers.
Trusty’s EUDR Passport handles registration in the EU Information System, supplier onboarding and geolocation collection, risk assessment, and DDS and simplified declaration submission, for operators of every size, including third-country producers. If you are not certain which of the dates above is yours, that is exactly the conversation to have now rather than in the last week of December.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 (EUDR) as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, Articles 2(15a), 4a, 6, 7 and 38(3); Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 (EU Timber Regulation) and its Annex.
Need software for EUDR due diligence? EUDR Passport is free to set up, free for your suppliers, and costs €90 per product profile per year with unlimited DDS.
This article is general information on the EU Deforestation Regulation as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, current as at August 2026. It is not legal advice. Application dates turn on facts specific to your business, take advice on your own position.
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