Ban on products made with forced labour

Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 prohibits products made with forced labour from being placed on the Union market or exported from the Union. It applies from 14 December 2027. The rule follows the product, not the size of the company. A small importer and a large brand can both be stopped from selling if the finding is made. The official text is CELEX 32024R3015.

Investigations can be led at Union or national level, depending on the case the regulation assigns. Authorities may ask for information on the product and on the suppliers involved. A product found to have been made with forced labour cannot be sold in the Union, and it should not be re-exported as a way around the decision. This is a market ban tied to a finding about the product. It is not a general due-diligence duty of the kind the CSDDD sets for very large companies from 2029. Traceability still matters, because an authority cannot assess a product it cannot link to a production site.

In textiles, the sensitive steps are spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting and sewing, and some raw materials, cotton among them. A brand that buys finished garments needs more than the name of the last factory if a question arrives about where the fibre was picked or spun. That picture is often incomplete today. A missing certificate is not itself a finding of forced labour. A company that cannot identify the relevant suppliers will find an investigation harder to answer.

National criminal law on forced labour continues beside this regulation. A product ban and a criminal investigation are different procedures. Who investigates, and what evidence is required, is set out in the official text. Check that text before an internal programme is built around it.

Any operator placing a product on the Union market, or exporting it, can be affected. There is no employee threshold of the kind the CSDDD uses. Authorities investigate. The ban applies from 14 December 2027.

Apparel supply chains often cross several countries between fibre and finished goods. Cotton and contract sewing are the steps most often discussed. A map that stops at the garment factory will not answer a question about an earlier stage. The regulation is product-based.

JOYNN can record the commercial chain and the facility data a company already collects, next to the product. That helps prepare an answer if an authority asks where a product was made. It is not a forced-labour investigation, it is not a certificate, and it does not make anyone compliant. JOYNN is not legal advice. The JOYNN Index does not declare a site free of forced labour.