The European Union has removed leather from the scope of its landmark deforestation regulation. The decision, announced on July 13, marks a significant victory for the leather industry, which had lobbied extensively against inclusion in the law that targets commodities linked to forest destruction.
Environmental advocates expressed disappointment, arguing that the exemption creates a loophole that could undermine the regulation’s intent. Leather production is intimately connected to cattle ranching, one of the primary drivers of deforestation in the Amazon and other critical ecosystems. The disconnect between the regulation’s treatment of live cattle and their hides, critics say, incentivizes a perverse outcome where the meat is regulated but the skin is not.
The leather sector’s argument hinged on traceability. Unlike whole cattle, which can be tracked through supply chains with relative precision, hides move through complex networks of slaughterhouses, traders, and tanneries across multiple jurisdictions. Industry representatives warned that compliance costs would devastate small and medium-sized tanneries across Europe without producing measurable environmental benefits.
The regulation, which will take full effect in December 2027, originally covered leather alongside cattle, soy, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, rubber, and timber. The exclusion means that leather producers and tanneries will not be required to prove their raw materials were not sourced from deforested land, a compliance burden that industry groups argued would be disproportionately costly.
For the fashion industry, the decision preserves access to European leather at a time when alternative materials are still scaling. Luxury houses that depend on high-quality European hides — from Hermès to Loro Piana to Bottega Veneta — can continue sourcing without the supply-chain disruption that inclusion would have triggered. The ruling provides stability for a material category that remains central to luxury’s material vocabulary, even as vegan and biofabricated alternatives gain ground.
