The EU's new rules targeting the destruction of unsold goods officially took effect in July this year, aiming to curb waste and overproduction in the fashion industry, advance the circular economy, and encourage product reuse and repair. Large companies must comply by July 18, 2026, while medium-sized companies have until 2030.

Key points

  • The new EU rules took effect in July this year: large companies must comply by July 18, 2026, and medium-sized companies by 2030.
  • Zerow, a startup based in Scandicci, Italy, recovers surplus fabrics and leather from luxury brands and supplies them to fashion brands for reuse.
  • Italian designer brand Bottega Bernard has been making limited-edition collections from luxury brands' excess capacity since 2021, and has already entered New York, Seoul and other markets.

Zerow, a startup based in Scandicci, Italy, sits at a key point in this chain. CEO and co-founder Gabriele Rorandelli said large companies feel more pressure, while customers actually benefit—they now receive far more support than before when searching for target materials. Zerow's business is precisely to recover surplus fabrics and leather from luxury brands and give them a second life through partnerships with fashion brands.

Rorandelli believes the new rules will filter out the players that truly have value and operate in a compliant way. For companies that do not understand their own inventory or talk about sustainability in vague terms, the new rules may bring trouble—similar to the EU anti-greenwashing regulation shelved in summer 2025, when many brands scaled back environmental actions for fear of being penalized for even the smallest administrative error; by contrast, any company that operates on data and documentation will benefit.

Rising transparency also opens a window of opportunity for emerging brands and young designers. International luxury groups now need to re-examine outdated production systems, while young companies can turn "being young" itself into an advantage: deadstock allows smaller players to produce high-quality small collections at more affordable costs. Rorandelli mentioned German brands Haderlump, SF10G and Nowrubi, all centered on recycled and reused materials.

In Italy, more and more emerging brands have already seen the potential of the deadstock market. Bottega Bernard, founded by Annachiara Bernardi, uses luxury brands' overproduction to make limited-edition collections, with its creative direction largely determined by what materials are available. Since 2021, the brand has shown in New York, Seoul and several major Italian cities. Bernardi admits that building a brand centered on circularity and sustainability in Italy is not easy: the country has an extraordinary supply chain, but it is extremely complicated for small brands to plug into that system while keeping costs under control. She believes Italian media support is strong, but at the commercial level people are overly cautious about small-scale sustainable brands—in Seoul, Berlin and New York, people are interested not only in the product itself but also in how it works; the difference is most obvious at the B2B level, where overseas showrooms and distributors are more willing to build relationships with young brands, looking first at the product, vision and project potential. She calls for more programs in Italy to help emerging designers connect with buyers, distributors and international markets, and to accompany young brands through the entire development cycle.

Rorandelli agrees. He points out that although companies like Zerow are creating visibility and value for Italy's textile heritage, responding to Europe's new model cannot rely on young people and startups alone. What needs to be done includes: building a more systematic collection and sorting supply chain, providing incentives for reuse and recycling, and establishing common traceability standards.

For the secondhand and used-clothing industry, the EU ban on destroying unsold goods will change, from upstream, how European luxury brands dispose of surplus fabrics and finished garments: inventory that used to be destroyed must now find an outlet, giving the deadstock trade and reuse supply chains an institutional source of supply, while also raising traceability and data capabilities to the threshold for participation.

Source: Will the new EU regulations on unsold goods really help independent brands? · Originally published on 2026-10-13