Are you a downstream operator or a trader?
Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 reshuffled the roles in Regulation (EU) 2023/1115. There are now three roles in the chain, and only the first one submits due diligence statements (DDS):
- Operator: whoever places the product on the EU market or exports it, excluding downstream operators (Art. 2(15)). In practice, the importer or whoever produces in the EU.
- Downstream operator: whoever places on the market or exports relevant products made using relevant products, all of which are covered by a DDS or by a simplified declaration (Art. 2(15b)). The roaster that buys green coffee (0901 11) from an importer and sells roasted coffee (0901 21), the manufacturer that buys plywood (4412) and sells furniture (9403), or the chocolate maker that buys cocoa butter (1804) and sells bars (1806).
- Trader: any other person in the supply chain who makes the product available on the market (Art. 2(17)). The distributor, the wholesaler or the shop reselling it without processing it.
The regulation gives downstream operators and traders the same obligations (Art. 5). What changes your duties is whether you are an SME and whether you buy directly from the operator. If your final product is not in Annex I, such as chocolate biscuits (1905), that product is out of scope; check it with the CN code checker.
Operator, downstream operator and trader: who does what
A summary of what the consolidated text requires after the reform:
| Role | Submits a DDS? | Registers? | Keeps information? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Yes, before placing on the market or exporting (Art. 4) | Yes, in order to submit | Yes: the DDS for 5 years (Art. 4(3)) and the Art. 9 information |
| Non-SME downstream operator | No | Yes, before placing on the market (Art. 5(2)) | Yes, at least 5 years (Art. 5(3) and (4)) |
| SME downstream operator | No | No | Yes, at least 5 years |
| Non-SME trader | No | Yes (Art. 5(2)) | Yes, at least 5 years |
| SME trader | No | No | Yes, at least 5 years |
There is a fourth case worth knowing: the micro or small primary operator (Art. 2(15a)), a small producer in a low-risk country that sells what it grows or raises itself. It does not submit a DDS but a one-time simplified declaration (Art. 4a), and receives a declaration identifier. For its buyers, that identifier plays the role of the reference number.
What information you must collect and keep
Article 5(3) asks the same of everyone, SMEs included, for each product you intend to place or make available on the market or export:
- About your supplier: name, registered trade name or trade mark, postal address, email and, if available, website.
- Only if your supplier is an operator: the reference numbers of its DDSs or the declaration identifiers for those products.
- About the businesses you sell to (downstream operators or traders): name, registered trade name or trade mark, postal address, email and, if available, website. The article does not mention final consumers.
You must hold this information before placing or making the product available or exporting it (Art. 5(1)), keep it for at least 5 years from that date and hand it to the authority on request (Art. 5(4)). In Spain, checks are carried out by MITECO and the regional governments.
A coffee example: a roaster in Zaragoza buys green coffee from an importer in Barcelona and sells roasted coffee to a chain of shops. The roaster keeps the importer’s details, the DDS reference numbers for each lot and the chain’s details. The chain, which buys from the roaster and not from the operator, keeps the roaster’s details and those of the businesses it resells to, but no reference numbers.
The first downstream operator: reference numbers and alerts
Traceability rests on the first link after the operator. The operator must pass the reference numbers or declaration identifiers to its buyers (Art. 4(7)), and that first downstream operator or trader, SME or not, collects and keeps them. Those further down the chain no longer do (recital 6 of Regulation (EU) 2025/2650).
In practice, ask each supplier to print the number on the delivery note or the invoice of every delivery. A sawmill in Galicia buying logs from a small local forest owner may receive a declaration identifier instead of a DDS number: Spain is classified as low risk and that owner can use the simplified declaration. More on the wood page.
Everyone also has a duty to warn. If you receive new information that a product you have already sold may not comply, you immediately inform the authority and the businesses you supplied (Art. 5(5)). You must also cooperate with checks, including access to premises and documents (Art. 5(7)). Checks on downstream operators and traders mainly review that documentation (Art. 19).
SME or not: what changes
The regulation refers to Directive 2013/34/EU (Art. 2(30)). You are an SME if you do not exceed two of these three limits: 250 employees on average, EUR 25 million balance sheet total and EUR 50 million net turnover (figures updated by Delegated Directive (EU) 2023/2775).
What applies only to non-SMEs:
- Registering in the EUDR information system before placing or making products available or exporting them (Art. 5(2)). It is done with EU Login, as the guide to TRACES access explains.
- If, before selling, they receive information that a product does not comply, informing the authority and, where there are substantiated concerns, verifying that due diligence was exercised and the risk was negligible. If that is not demonstrated, they cannot sell it (Art. 5(6)).
- Falling within the annual checks: authorities check at least 1 %, 3 % or 9 % of operators, non-SME downstream operators and non-SME traders, depending on whether the country of origin is low, standard or high risk (Art. 16).
What does not change with size: the duty to collect and keep information, and the date. All downstream operators and traders start on 30 December 2026; the postponement to 30 June 2027 is only for micro and small operators (Art. 38(3)). Products added to Annex I by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102 apply from 30 December 2027. More in EUDR deadlines.
When do you become an operator?
Roles are decided product by product, not company by company. The same company can be a downstream operator for some purchases and an operator for others. You become an operator, with full due diligence and your own DDS, in these cases:
- You import yourself. If the roaster brings in a container of green coffee in its own name, it is the operator for that lot and submits the DDS before customs clearance.
- You buy from a supplier not established in the EU that placed the product on the market: the first person established in the EU that makes it available is deemed the operator (Art. 7).
- You use a relevant product that is not covered by a DDS or a simplified declaration. The downstream operator definition requires all of them to be covered; if one is missing, you do not fit it.
Processing alone does not make you an operator: a chocolate maker producing bars with cocoa butter bought in the EU with its DDS remains a downstream operator. Nor does exporting: when a downstream operator exports, no reference number has to be given to customs (Art. 26(4)). And an operator that is a natural person or a microenterprise can appoint as authorised representative the next downstream operator or trader in the chain that is neither, which then submits the DDS on its behalf (Art. 6(3); see the authorised representative guide).
If you also import some lots, you are the operator for them: Sourevo prepares the DDS with your suppliers’ plots, submits it to TRACES and stores the reference and verification numbers it returns, ready to pass on to your customers.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to submit a DDS if I buy from an EU importer?
- No, if you process or resell a product that already has a DDS. Since Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 only the operator or its authorised representative submits DDSs.
- How long do I have to keep the reference numbers?
- At least 5 years from the date you place or make the product available or export it, and you must hand them to the authority on request (Art. 5(4)).
- I buy from a distributor, not from the importer. Do I need reference numbers?
- No. Reference numbers are only required when the supplier is an operator. You keep the name, postal address, email and website of your supplier and of the businesses you sell to.
- Does an SME that only resells have to register in TRACES?
- No. Registration is only for downstream operators and traders that are not SMEs (Art. 5(2)). The SME still has to collect and keep the Article 5(3) information.
- Do I have to check my supplier’s due diligence?
- As a rule, no: the reform removed that for downstream operators and traders. The exception is non-SMEs that, before selling, have substantiated concerns that a product does not comply: they inform the authority and verify that due diligence was exercised (Art. 5(6)).