How much are the EUDR fines?

Q: Is the 4% calculated on worldwide turnover?

The Regulation refers to total annual turnover in the Union in the previous financial year. A national law could go further.

Short answer: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 does not set a specific fine. It requires each Member State to provide for fines where the maximum fine is at least 4% of the operator's or trader's total annual EU-wide turnover (Art. 25(2)(a)). The 4% is the legal floor for the cap, not the cap itself. On top of the fine come confiscation of products and revenues, exclusion from public procurement and public funding for up to 12 months, and a temporary ban on placing products on the market. In Spain, as of November 2026, the law that will set the amounts is still going through the legislative process.

What penalties does Article 25 of the Regulation provide for?

Article 25 does not impose penalties directly. It sets the minimum content of each Member State's penalty regime. Penalties must be "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" and must include at least the following:

Penalty	What the Regulation says	Article
Fine	Proportionate to the environmental damage and the value of the products. For legal persons, the maximum fine is at least 4% of the operator's or trader's total annual EU-wide turnover in the previous financial year, and it must increase for repeat infringements	Art. 25(2)(a)
Confiscation of products	The relevant products concerned held by the operator, downstream operator or trader	Art. 25(2)(b)
Confiscation of revenues	The revenues gained from the transaction in those products	Art. 25(2)(c)
Exclusion from public contracts and funding	Temporary exclusion, for up to 12 months, from public procurement and public funding (including grants and concessions)	Art. 25(2)(d)
Temporary ban	Ban on placing on the market, making available on the market or exporting, in the case of a serious infringement or repeat infringements	Art. 25(2)(e)
Loss of simplified due diligence	Ban on using the simplified procedure of Art. 13 (products from low-risk countries), in the case of a serious infringement or repeat infringements	Art. 25(2)(f)
Publication	The Commission publishes final judgments against legal persons on its website: name, date, summary of the infringement and penalty imposed	Art. 25(3)

Source: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, consolidated text of 18-9-2026, Art. 25.

How is the 4% fine calculated?

The most quoted figure is also the most misunderstood. Art. 25(2)(a) literally says that, for legal persons, "the maximum amount of such a fine shall be at least 4 % of the operator’s, downstream operator’s or trader’s total annual Union-wide turnover".

The 4% is not a ceiling: it is the minimum that the cap set by each country must reach. A Member State can set a higher cap.
Nor is 4% the minimum fine: the authority sets each fine according to the damage, the value of the products and the profit obtained. A minor infringement may end in a much smaller fine.
Basis of calculation: total EU turnover in the financial year before the decision, calculated under Art. 5(1) of Merger Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.
Repeat infringements: the amount must increase gradually, and always by enough for the penalty to exceed the economic gain obtained.

Example: for a company with EUR 50 million of EU turnover, national law must allow a maximum fine of at least EUR 2 million. That does not mean the fine will be EUR 2 million.

The Commission confirms this in FAQ 10.2 (version 5, May 2026): each Member State decides the level, but for legal persons the maximum "cannot be lower than 4%".

What else can happen besides the fine?

Before any penalty, the Regulation gives authorities tools that in practice carry as much weight as the fine:

Immediate interim measures (Art. 23): seizure of the goods or suspension of their placing on the market, making available or export when possible non-compliance is detected.
Corrective action (Art. 24): remedying formal non-compliance, preventing the sale, withdrawing or recalling the product, or donating or disposing of it. The company must also fix its due diligence system.
Blocked at customs (Art. 26): without the reference number of the due diligence statement, or if the authority concludes that the product does not comply, customs will not allow release for free circulation or export. Release is not proof of compliance either (Art. 26(10)).
Criminal route: Art. 25(1) applies "without prejudice to" Directive 2008/99/EC on environmental crime.

Who imposes fines in Spain?

The competent authority in Spain is the Dirección General de Biodiversidad, Bosques y Desertificación of MITECO, the directorate for biodiversity and forests of Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition, together with an authority designated by each autonomous community (Spain's regions). They carry out checks and, once the law exists, will impose penalties.

The Spanish penalty regime does not exist yet. On 17 June 2025 the Council of Ministers approved, at first reading, the draft law implementing the Regulation. The draft creates the Oficina de Lucha contra la Deforestación asociada al Comercio, a new office to tackle trade-related deforestation, and sets the Art. 25 penalty regime (MITECO press release; Council of Ministers briefing). The CNMC, Spain's competition authority, issued its report on 9 September 2025. As of 9 November 2026 there is no record of its approval as a bill or of its publication in the BOE, Spain's Official State Gazette.

That does not leave companies risk-free:

The Regulation is directly applicable from 30 December 2026 (or 30 June 2027 for micro and small enterprises), with or without a Spanish law.
Blocking at customs does not depend on the national penalty law.
MITECO has reminded operators that declaring the EUDR TARIC document codes incorrectly at customs "could lead to an administrative or even criminal penalty" under Ley Orgánica 12/1995 de Represión del Contrabando, Spain's law on smuggling offences. This is the general smuggling law, not an EUDR regime.

Across the rest of the EU the picture is uneven: as of November 2026 only Czechia, Slovakia and Belgium have a law in force with specific amounts. Belgium chose the criminal route, with prison sentences of 8 days to 3 years and fines from EUR 160 to EUR 4 million. Denmark penalises with fines through a ministerial order (November 2025), without fixed amounts. Germany is passing its law through the Bundestag, with fines that can reach 4% of EU turnover and prison sentences of up to five years. The Netherlands, Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Italy are still at the draft stage.

Are operators and traders penalised in the same way?

Art. 25 applies to all three: operators, downstream operators and traders, and the fine is calculated on the turnover of whoever commits the infringement. What changes is which obligations each can breach, because they do not have the same ones:

Role	Obligations (that can be breached)	Basis
Operator	Full due diligence, due diligence statement before placing on the market or exporting, keeping records for 5 years. Takes responsibility for the product's compliance	Arts. 4, 8 to 12
Micro or small primary operator	Single simplified declaration before placing on the market; due diligence	Art. 4a
Downstream operator and trader	Collect and keep for 5 years the details of suppliers and customers (and the reference number if the supplier is an operator); notify the authority if there is a risk of non-compliance	Art. 5(1), 5(3) to 5(5)
Downstream operator and trader that are not SMEs	In addition: register in the EUDR Information System and, in the case of a substantiated concern, verify the due diligence before selling	Art. 5(2) and 5(6)

The main responsibility lies with the operator (Art. 4(3)). A trader is not liable for its supplier's due diligence, but it is liable for its own information obligations.

Is there a grace period or a phase without penalties?

No. The Commission did propose a grace period, but Parliament and Council removed it in Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, which only postponed the dates. The Regulation applies from 30 December 2026 to large and medium-sized companies and from 30 June 2027 to micro and small enterprises established as such by 31 December 2024 at the latest (Art. 38).

Frequently asked questions

Is the maximum EUDR fine 4% of turnover?

No. The 4% is the minimum that the cap set by each country must reach. A Member State can set higher caps, and each fine is set case by case.

Is the 4% calculated on worldwide turnover?

The Regulation refers to total annual turnover in the Union in the previous financial year. A national law could go further.

Can an SME be fined?

Yes. Penalties apply to any operator, downstream operator or trader, whatever its size.

Are the names of penalised companies published?

The Commission publishes final court judgments against legal persons, with name, date, summary of the infringement and penalty (Art. 25(3) and FAQ 10.4).

If Spain has no law, can I import without a due diligence statement?

No. The obligation comes from the Regulation, which is directly applicable, and without a reference number customs will not release the goods.

Keep reading: what is the EUDR: the complete guide · EUDR deadlines for SMEs · am I an operator or a downstream operator?.

Coolx automates the collection of supplier data, the risk analysis of each plot of land and the submission of the due diligence statement to the EUDR Information System.