France’s AGEC law (Anti-Gaspillage pour une Économie Circulaire, Law no. 2020-105 of 10 February 2020) is often reduced in headlines to plastic straw bans or digital receipts. For CIOs and supply chain directors at brands selling home appliances, clothing, or furniture on the French market, the reality is more demanding: AGEC imposes traceability and labelling obligations that reach deep into the information system.
In 2026, three concrete IT projects are on the table for companies operating in France: the durability index on electrical and electronic products, the environmental display requirement entering its mandatory phase for textiles, and the traceability of unsold non-food goods — mandatory since January 2022 but still poorly integrated in many ERPs.
This guide sets out the obligations currently in force, the data to collect by product category, and the steps to bring your information system into compliance with French law.
What the AGEC Law Requires and Its Timeline
The Five Pillars of the AGEC Framework
The AGEC law structures its 130 articles around five axes:
- Consumer information: display of product durability, repairability, recycled content, and origin.
- End of single-use plastics: phased elimination of non-recyclable plastic packaging, ban on expanded polystyrene products.
- Waste reduction: ban on destruction of unsold non-food goods, obligation to redirect to reuse or recycling.
- Product lifespan extension: repairability index, then durability index, obligation to maintain spare parts availability.
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): expansion of EPR schemes to textiles (TLC), furniture, toys, and sporting goods.
What Is Already Mandatory in 2026
| Obligation | Entry into force | Who is affected |
|---|---|---|
| Repairability index (dishwashers, laptops) | Since 1 January 2021 | Producers and distributors |
| Durability index — televisions | Since 8 January 2025 | Producers and distributors |
| Durability index — washing machines | Since 8 April 2025 | Producers and distributors |
| Ban on destruction of unsold non-food goods | Since 1 January 2022 | Producers, importers, distributors |
| Textile environmental display (voluntary phase) | Since 1 October 2025 | Brands >€10M revenue AND >10,000 units sold in France |
| Textile environmental display (asymmetric mandatory phase) | From 1 October 2026 | Brands making environmental claims |
| Digital receipts (opt-out paper) | Since 1 August 2023 | Retail distributors |
Key point for 2026: environmental display for food and other sectors (outside textiles) remains in an experimental phase, with no legally fixed mandatory date as of now.
The Durability Index: What Your ERP Must Store
Two Active Categories in 2025, Not Five
A common misconception circulates among IT teams: the AGEC law originally planned a durability index across five categories (televisions, washing machines, smartphones, laptops, dishwashers). The 2026 reality is more limited.
Only two categories have transitioned to the durability index under Decree no. 2024-316 of 5 April 2024:
- Televisions: since 8 January 2025.
- Washing machines (front-loader and top-loader): since 8 April 2025.
For smartphones, the project was abandoned following an unfavourable opinion from the European Commission, which concluded that a French index would duplicate EU Regulation 2023/1669 on energy labelling for smartphones and tablets, which entered into force on 20 June 2025. Laptops and dishwashers remain under the repairability index — not replaced by the durability index for those categories.
This distinction matters operationally: the fields to populate in your ERP differ depending on whether you are dealing with the repairability index or the durability index.
The Three Scoring Criteria
The durability index is scored out of 10 points, with a colour-coded display (red to green). The three criteria defined in the decree are:
- Repairability: access to technical documentation, ease of disassembly, availability and pricing of spare parts, existence of a certified repair network.
- Reliability: resistance to wear, ease of maintenance, length of commercial warranty, manufacturer quality assurance process.
- Software and hardware improvements: capacity for product evolution over time (a criterion linked to planned obsolescence).
Failure to display the index carries administrative penalties under Article L. 541-9-4 of the French Environment Code, potentially reaching €15,000 for a legal entity (€3,000 for an individual), imposed by the DGCCRF (French consumer protection authority).
What the ERP Must Store per Product Reference
To meet the display obligation, producers and distributors must be able to show the overall score and the score per criterion on the product page — both in-store and on e-commerce sites. This requires these data points to be present in the product master, whether that lives in the ERP or a dedicated PIM.
Fields to create or complete in the product reference data:
| Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Overall durability index score | Numeric (0.0 to 10.0) | 7.4 |
| Repairability score | Numeric | 8.1 |
| Reliability score | Numeric | 7.0 |
| Improvement capacity score | Numeric | 6.8 |
| Score calculation date | Date | 2025-01-08 |
| Score source (self-declared / certified by accredited body) | Text | Self-declared |
| Approved spare parts supplier | Text / link | Miele Service Center |
| Guaranteed spare parts availability period | Integer (years) | 10 |
This data is typically provided by the manufacturer in technical datasheets or distributor portals. For own-brand distributors, it must be calculated and documented before the product reaches market.
Environmental Display: The First Concrete Obligation for Textiles in 2026
What Comes into Force on 1 October 2026
A decree published in the French Official Journal on 9 September 2025 creates an asymmetric obligation for the textile sector from 1 October 2026:
- Any brand that communicates on an environmental indicator (carbon footprint, sustainability score, proprietary label) must simultaneously display the official environmental cost calculated using ADEME’s Ecobalyse methodology.
- Third parties (NGOs, comparison platforms) may publish scores for any brand, with or without that brand’s consent.
This obligation applies only to companies meeting two cumulative criteria: annual revenue above €10 million AND more than 10,000 units sold in France per year. It covers eleven textile categories with more than 80% textile content (polo shirts, jeans, dresses, coats, knitwear, etc.). Second-hand items, footwear, and accessories are excluded.
For other sectors (furniture expected in 2027, food and cosmetics with no date set), sectoral experimentation continues. No legal obligation has been established as of this writing.
The ERP/PIM Data Needed to Calculate the Score
The Ecobalyse tool developed by ADEME calculates the score from 16 life cycle assessment (LCA) indicators. Feeding these indicators requires data that, for the most part, already lives in the ERP or PIM:
- Raw material origin: country of production of yarn, fabric, and garment (supplier traceability data).
- Material composition: percentage of cotton, polyester, wool, recycled fibres (material fields in product master data).
- Dyeing and treatment processes: process data available in supplier specifications.
- Primary transport mode: available in purchase order records or the logistics ERP module.
Operational watch point: where precise sourcing data is absent, Ecobalyse defaults to an Indian energy mix, penalising the scores of brands that do not document their supply chain. Enriching the supplier reference data in the ERP therefore directly improves the displayed score — not just a compliance task, but a commercial differentiator.
Unsold Non-Food Goods Traceability: An Obligation Active Since 2022
The Destruction Ban — What the Law Actually Says
Article 35 of the AGEC law (codified as Article L. 541-15-8 of the French Environment Code) has prohibited, since 1 January 2022, the destruction by incineration or landfill of new, unsold non-food goods. This ban applies to producers, importers, and distributors of new non-food products. It applies primarily to products subject to an EPR scheme (textiles/TLC, furniture, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators, graphic papers).
The legally mandated hierarchy of treatment is:
- Reuse: donation to approved associations (with a tax benefit of 60% reduction on the pre-tax value, capped at €20,000 or 0.5% of turnover).
- Repurposing: refurbishment then redistribution.
- Recycling: material transformation, only if the two preceding options are impossible.
Companies that fail to follow this hierarchy face administrative fines of up to €15,000 per infringement for legal entities, imposed by the relevant inspection authorities.
How the ERP Must Track Unsold Goods Flows
Legal compliance depends on the ability to document — at the batch or SKU level — the destination of every unsold item removed from stock without a commercial sale. A stock movement coded “disposal write-off” is now illegal without a documented redirection justification.
The ERP modules to configure or extend are the following:
Stock management and stock issue types
Every non-sale stock outflow must be typed with a legal reason code:
- Association donation (EPR code or internal code)
- Clearance / outlet sale
- Refurbishment
- Recycling via approved EPR channel
ERPs that do not offer these codes natively must create them in the stock movement reason parameter tables.
Redirection partner traceability
For each redirected batch, the ERP or the associated DMS must retain:
- The date of stock removal.
- The volume (number of units and/or weight).
- The identity of the redirection partner (approved association, licensed recycling operator).
- The signed delivery note or collection receipt.
Annual reporting for EPR organisations
Producers subject to EPR must annually declare to their EPR body (Refashion for textiles, Ecologic for electrical/electronic equipment) the volumes placed on the market and the volumes redirected. This declaration draws directly on data from the stock management and purchasing modules.
How ERP Vendors Are Responding in 2026
Native Functionality: Still Limited
No mainstream ERP vendor offers a turnkey “AGEC module” in 2026 covering all obligations (durability index + environmental display + unsold goods traceability). The topic is still handled through custom configuration or third-party solutions.
SAP S/4HANA: the Product Stewardship module (formerly EHS) can store product compliance data, including scores and environmental indicators. The durability index fields can be housed there. Connecting to the Sustainability module (SAP Green Ledger / SLM) allows chaining with CSRD reporting. Requires specific configuration — no out-of-the-box “French durability index” standard delivery.
Microsoft Dynamics 365: no native AGEC functionality. Unsold goods traceability can be implemented via stock movement reason codes in Supply Chain Management. For the durability index, extensions through custom fields in the product master are required.
Odoo: open platform, configurable via custom fields in the Inventory and Purchase modules. OCA community modules cover some EPR aspects. Requires custom development for environmental display.
Sage X3 (widely used in mid-market French and international subsidiaries): well-structured stock movement traceability, configurable for AGEC exit codes. No native durability or environmental display module.
Third-Party Solutions: Connecting the ERP to Specialist Tools
For brands that need to calculate complex scores (LCA for environmental display), specialist solutions connect to the ERP via API:
- Ecobalyse (ADEME, open source): the reference tool for textile environmental display, exposing an API to automatically populate scores from ERP/PIM data.
- Optilude, Fairly Made, Sourcemap: supplier traceability platforms that enrich ERP data with origin and process information needed for LCA calculations.
- Phenix, Dons Solidaires: unsold goods redirection platforms with reporting exports that can be integrated back into the ERP.
5-Step Action Plan to Bring Your ERP into AGEC Compliance
Step 1: Map the obligations applicable to your product portfolio
Before any IT project, clarify which obligations apply based on your product categories, volumes, and revenue. A washing machine manufacturer faces different priorities from a textile e-tailer or a consumer electronics distributor.
Step 2: Audit the product master data
Identify missing fields in the ERP or PIM: durability scores, material composition data, supplier data (country of origin, processes). This audit often reveals gaps in product master data structure that go beyond any regulatory obligation.
Step 3: Configure stock movement codes for unsold goods
Set up compliant exit reason codes in the stock management module as required by Article L. 541-15-8: donation, clearance, EPR recycling channel. Associate each code with a mandatory “redirection partner” field to enforce traceability at point of entry.
Step 4: Connect the ERP to the environmental score calculation tool
For textile brands subject to environmental display, build an integration between the PIM/ERP and the Ecobalyse API. Feed supplier sourcing data from the purchasing module. Automate score recalculation whenever a product reference or supplier changes.
Step 5: Set up annual reporting for EPR organisations
Build the queries or report templates from the stock management and purchasing modules to produce EPR declarations (volumes placed on market by category, volumes redirected, partners). Verify consistency with CSRD declarations if the company is subject to those requirements.
AGEC and the Digital Product Passport: Anticipating the Franco-European Convergence
The AGEC law is a French instrument — a pioneer in Europe on the durability index and unsold goods obligations. EU Regulation ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, EU Regulation 2024/1781) extends a similar logic to the entire European market through the Digital Product Passport (DPP), with a progressive rollout schedule from 2026 to 2030.
The data already collected for the durability index (repairability criteria, spare parts availability, technical documentation) will feed directly into the future DPP. Brands that structure their product master data for AGEC compliance today are building ahead on the ESPR project, without duplicating the effort.
To go further, see our operational guide to the Digital Product Passport (DPP) and industrial ERP, our article on CSRD and ERP: preparing sustainability reporting in 2026, and our sector guide ERP for Fashion and Textile in 2026 covering the regulatory specifics for the sector.
