What if my supplier gave me false data?

Responsibility towards the authority stays with the operator. What you can show is what you did to check that data: what you asked for, what you cross-checked against images and why you concluded the risk was negligible. That is why you should document each decision at the time you make it.

Are there fine amounts in Spain yet?

The Regulation sets the minimum for the maximum (at least 4% of EU turnover). The specific amounts per infringement will be set by the Spanish implementing law, which was going through the legislative process after the June 2025 draft.

Who is liable if my freight forwarder submitted the DDS?

You are. The authorised representative submits on your behalf, but responsibility for compliance stays with the operator (Art. 6). More in the guide for freight forwarders.

Do they also check businesses that only resell?

Yes. Downstream operators and traders have to be able to show the reference numbers of the DDSs for what they buy and sell, and those that are not SMEs have to be registered.

EUDR penalties in Spain: who enforces and what is at stake

In Spain, the EUDR is enforced by MITECO (the Ministry for the Ecological Transition), through its Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, and by the autonomous communities, with customs at the border. The Regulation requires that fines can reach at least 4% of annual EU turnover. It also provides for confiscation of the goods and of the revenue, and temporary exclusion from public contracts.

Who enforces in Spain

At national level, the competent authority is MITECO's Directorate-General for Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification (Dirección General de Biodiversidad, Bosques y Desertificación). Each autonomous community has also designated its own authority for checks in its territory, and MITECO publishes the list. At the border, customs checks that the declaration carries the reference number of a valid DDS and works with the competent authorities.

In June 2025 the Council of Ministers gave first approval to a draft law (anteproyecto de ley) to apply the EUDR in Spain. It creates an Office for Combating Trade-Related Deforestation as the national authority, a state commission with the autonomous communities and a state information repository. It also amends the Ley de Montes (the Forestry Act) and repeals Real Decreto 1088/2015 on legal timber.

Until that law is published in the BOE (the Official State Gazette), MITECO cites as applicable law Ley 43/2003 de Montes (the Forestry Act) and Ley Orgánica 12/1995 de Represión del Contrabando (the Anti-Smuggling Act).

What penalties the Regulation sets

Article 25 leaves the detailed regime to each Member State, but sets what it must include as a minimum:

Fines proportionate to the environmental damage and the value of the goods, with a maximum of at least 4% of the company's total annual EU turnover in the previous financial year, raised where needed so that it exceeds the economic gain obtained.
Confiscation of the products concerned.
Confiscation of the revenue gained from them.
Temporary exclusion, for up to 12 months, from public procurement and public funding.
A temporary ban on placing on the market or exporting Annex I products, in case of a serious or repeated infringement.
A ban on using simplified due diligence.

The 4% is not a fixed fine, and it is not a floor for every infringement. It is the minimum ceiling that Spanish law has to allow for the most serious cases. The amount for each infringement will be set by national law.

What the checks look like

Each authority has an annual plan that covers at least 3% of operators for each commodity, and 9% when the product comes from high-risk countries (Art. 16). Checks review the due diligence system, the documentation and the DDSs, and can include on-the-spot checks, satellite images or laboratory analysis (Art. 18).

If they find signs of a problem, the authorities can take immediate interim measures, such as holding the goods (Art. 17). If non-compliance is confirmed, they can require corrective action: withdrawing the product from the market, recalling it from customers, or donating or destroying it (Art. 24).

Any person or organisation can submit a substantiated concern about an operator to the authority (Art. 31). An NGO or a competitor with satellite images of a plot deforested in 2022 is a realistic starting point for a check.

What you risk in practice

Before any fine, the first place you feel it is customs. Without the reference number of a DDS there is no clearance, and the container waits in port running up storage charges. If the DDS exists but there are doubts about it, the goods can be held while it is checked.

Then come confiscation and withdrawal. Withdrawing a lot of coffee that has already been roasted and delivered to cafés costs far more than the coffee itself. And exclusion from public contracts hurts in sectors that sell to the public sector, such as furniture or paper.

How to reduce the risk

What protects you most in a check is being able to show how you decided the risk was negligible:

Keep all the information on each shipment for 5 years: suppliers, plots, images, legality documents and the risk assessment.
Review your due diligence system at least once a year and keep a record that you did.
When a supplier cannot give you complete geolocation, do not submit the DDS. A delayed shipment costs less than a false DDS.
Check plots against the cut-off date before you buy, not after the container arrives. The geolocation guide explains how.

Frequently asked questions

What if my supplier gave me false data?: Responsibility towards the authority stays with the operator. What you can show is what you did to check that data: what you asked for, what you cross-checked against images and why you concluded the risk was negligible. That is why you should document each decision at the time you make it.
Are there fine amounts in Spain yet?: The Regulation sets the minimum for the maximum (at least 4% of EU turnover). The specific amounts per infringement will be set by the Spanish implementing law, which was going through the legislative process after the June 2025 draft.
Who is liable if my freight forwarder submitted the DDS?: You are. The authorised representative submits on your behalf, but responsibility for compliance stays with the operator (Art. 6). More in the guide for freight forwarders.
Do they also check businesses that only resell?: Yes. Downstream operators and traders have to be able to show the reference numbers of the DDSs for what they buy and sell, and those that are not SMEs have to be registered.