Legality requirement (EUDR)

Why does it matter?

The legality requirement is Article 3(b) of the EUDR. A product can be deforestation-free and still non-compliant if, for instance, the land was used without a valid right or production breached labour law. Operators must collect “adequately conclusive and verifiable information” on legality, including any arrangement conferring the right to use the area (Article 9(1)(h)).

What laws are covered?

Article 2(40) lists the areas of relevant legislation of the country of production:

• land use rights;
• environmental protection;
• forest-related rules where directly related to wood harvesting;
• third parties’ rights;
• labour rights;
• human rights protected under international law;
• free, prior and informed consent, including as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
• tax, anti-corruption, trade and customs regulations.

How does it work at the first mile?

For smallholder supply chains, evidence often includes land tenure documents or customary rights attestations, cooperative registration, farmer declarations and results from monitoring systems such as a CLMRS. In its 2026 report, the Commission announced repositories of producer-country legislation and of certification schemes to support this assessment.

Common pitfalls

• Treating legality as a single document rather than a set of risks.
• Ignoring informal or customary tenure, common among smallholders.

Farmer1st’s human rights due diligence service helps collect and structure legality and social evidence at farm level.