What is EUDR legality?

A product can enter the EU market under the EUDR only if three conditions are met. It must be deforestation-free. It must be covered by a due diligence statement that has been submitted to the EU customs portal. And it must be produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production, also know as EUDR legality compliance. Whereas deforestation assessments and due diligence statements are specific to certain shipments, the legality assessment can qualify or disqualify a supplier and all of their shipments. 

EUDR defines legality across 8 categories, some of which are already reflected in standard supplier due diligence assessments, namely tax, anti-corruption, trade and customs compliance, labor rights and human rights protected under international law. If a company already collects this data in an existing supplier due diligence workflow, there is no need to duplicate the effort for EUDR.

Other categories of EUDR legality are new to most companies: land use rights, environmental protection, forest management and harvesting rules (wood and paper only), third-party rights and free prior and informed consent. Companies should obtain attestations and evidence that suppliers align with local laws on these topics. 

Data collection for EUDR legality should be performed at least once a year, and we recommend performing it prior to contracting with a supplier or as part of annual contract reviews before orders are placed. If a supplier does not meet EUDR legality criteria, no orders can be placed with them.

The law does not clarify the type of evidence to collect but at a minimum Sourcemap expects attestations of legal practices for each EUDR category as well as documents demonstrating policies and procedures that ensure legality. These can be corporate policy documents, supplier policies, or even go as far as to include audit reports, company registration documents, and land titles themselves. All records must be kept for a minimum of 5 years. 

For companies with hundreds of suppliers the task of EUDR legality data collection can be extremely time-consuming. Suppliers registered on Sourcemap can upload their responses and accompanying documents in a matter of minutes, and the documents are automatically scanned for validity and applicability to the legal criteria.

To find out more about how to implement EUDR legality compliance alongside your existing vendor management processes get in touch with the EUDR experts at Sourcemap: https://www.sourcemap.com/demo