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Quick summary: Discover how EUDR compliance impacts the book industry. Learn what publishers, printers, and mills must do to meet traceability, due diligence, and reporting requirements under the new EU regulation.
Do you know that that even books can contribute to deforestation. Under the new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), every printed book, journal, or magazine sold in Europe must carry proof that the paper it’s made from has not caused forest loss or degradation.
EUDR compliance for book industry requires publishers, printers, and paper mills to prove that wood-based paper products are deforestation-free and fully traceable. The regulation mandates geolocation data from the tree through pulp, paper reels, and final printed books, alongside Due Diligence Statements (DDS) filed in the EU system. Each actor in the supply chain must store or pass DDS references and geolocation data, ensuring audit readiness. Exemptions apply only to 100% recycled paper. With reporting deadlines set for 2025–2026, robust traceability systems are essential for maintaining EU market access and avoiding penalties.
Asked about the industry’s concerns, CEPI Director General Jori Ringman told Reuters it was unfeasible for book publishers, for example, to trace the origins of their paper back to potentially thousands of forest plots.
Coming into force on June 29, 2023, the EUDR replaced the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which only covered raw timber and wood products. The scope has now widened significantly. This shift means the book industry is no longer exempt. Publishers, printers, and paper mills are directly responsible for tracing paper back to its source—down to the geolocation of the trees harvested. What was once outside compliance rules is now squarely at the centre of them, reshaping how the global publishing supply chain operates.
Key Takeaways
At its core, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) aims to cut the link between global supply chains and deforestation. By mandating traceability, it ensures that any product entering or leaving the EU market—whether soy, cocoa, or paper—is sourced from land that has not been deforested or degraded after December 31, 2020. The regulation goes beyond legality: even “legal” deforestation under national law is non-compliant if it harms forests.
The EUDR targets seven high-risk commodities—cattle, wood, cocoa, soy, palm oil, coffee, and rubber—plus a wide range of derived goods from leather and chocolate to tires and furniture. While many industries anticipated the shift, the inclusion of printed matter was a curveball for the book trade.
Why books? Because the publishing industry relies heavily on wood-based paper products. From text blocks and boards to dust jackets and endpapers, every component traces back to forests. Under EUDR, a hardback is no longer just an object of culture—it’s also a compliance asset that must carry proof of deforestation-free sourcing. For publishers and printers, this means mastering a level of supply chain transparency previously reserved for sectors like food and fashion.
Unlike consumables such as coffee or soy, books are long-lived cultural goods with complex production layers. This makes compliance both more challenging and more reputationally sensitive: if a bestseller is flagged for non-compliance, the backlash is not only legal but also cultural. In this way, EUDR compliance isn’t just a regulatory burden for publishers—it’s an opportunity to reframe books as symbols of sustainability, reinforcing their value in an era where environmental credentials influence consumer trust.
Want to see how traceability works in practice?
Dive deeper into our blog on Digital Paper Traceability and learn how publishers and printers can achieve real-time compliance visibility.
Looking for a publisher-specific perspective?
Read our guide on EUDR Compliance for Publishers to understand how editorial teams, printers, and distributors can align compliance without disrupting production schedules.
The EUDR places an unprecedented demand on the book trade: every book sold in or exported from the EU must be demonstrably linked to deforestation-free sourcing. In practice, this means publishers can no longer rely on paper certifications alone—they must prove, with verifiable data, where the trees used in their paper originated. For an industry built on storytelling, this is a new story: every book now carries a hidden narrative about its environmental footprint.
The regulation requires a cradle-to-cover chain of custody: from the geolocation of the tree, to pulp and paper reels, to the printing press, and finally to the finished book. For a simple paperback, this is complex enough. For a hardback, however, traceability becomes a puzzle—each part of the book (text block, endpapers, case, boards, jacket) may originate from different mills or suppliers. Publishers must be ready to trace each component individually, effectively mapping the forest DNA of every book they produce.
Collecting and holding geolocation data won’t fall on a single actor. Mills and timber merchants are expected to capture the data. Printers and publishers will aggregate it into production records. Warehouses will need to store references for audit readiness. This is a multi-actor relay race, where each player has to hold the baton long enough to pass it on—without dropping compliance along the way.
The EU favors “excess reporting,” where large batches of land plots are tied to all paper outputs. The risk? If a single plot fails compliance, the entire batch becomes invalid, threatening entire print runs. On the other side, the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) proposes a mass balance approach, where mills allocate input plots proportionally across outputs (e.g., all trees used in January are counted for January’s paper). The debate is still unresolved, leaving the book industry in limbo—and highlighting the urgent need for digital tools that can adapt to either system.
The DDS is the compliance “passport” that must travel down the supply chain: from mill → printer → publisher → distributor → retailer. In some cases, only the DDS reference number may be passed. In others, raw geolocation data and harvest dates must be shared, linking the book directly to its provenance. For publishers, this means reimagining metadata management: DDS records may soon sit alongside ISBNs in book files, becoming just as essential for sales.
Unlike soy or palm oil, books are cultural artifacts—and that creates a unique tension. If a batch of chocolate is pulled from shelves, it’s a supply chain failure. But if a non-compliant book is flagged, it’s also a symbolic failure—a reminder that literature, which once helped drive social progress, could be undermining environmental progress. For publishers, therefore, compliance is not just about avoiding fines but about safeguarding the moral authority of the book industry in a sustainability-conscious world.
EUDR compliance in the book industry means handling unprecedented volumes of geolocation data—from individual tree plots through pulp mills to finished books. For mills, the complexity lies in splitting and aggregating inputs: thousands of trees become mixed pulp streams, later converted into reels of paper. For publishers and printers, every edition, format, and warehouse adds another compliance layer. With the EU still debating acceptable tracing methods (excess reporting vs. mass balance), companies face uncertainty on how to structure their data. The challenge isn’t just compliance—it’s building systems robust enough to ensure audit-ready traceability at scale.
For publishers, handling manuscripts is second nature. But under EUDR, the real challenge isn’t words—it’s data. Each print run, edition, and reprint requires geolocation evidence for the paper it uses. Multiply this across multiple suppliers and warehouses, and publishers suddenly face datasets larger and more complex than their entire digital rights catalogues. What was once a back-office concern becomes a strategic issue: without robust data systems, compliance bottlenecks could delay launches and disrupt global distribution.
The heart of the challenge lies at the mill. Mills receive inputs from thousands of plots, often blending wood chips into pulp batches before rolling them into reels. Splitting and aggregating these inputs to assign provenance to specific paper reels is a logistical labyrinth. It’s here that two competing approaches emerge: the EU’s “excess reporting,” which risks penalizing entire batches, versus CEPI’s “mass balance” method, which pragmatically allocates inputs to outputs. Until Brussels decides, mills and publishers alike must prepare for either scenario.
For publishers managing multiple editions, formats, and territories, complexity multiplies. A hardcover printed in Germany, a paperback printed in Poland, and a special edition printed in Spain may all require different datasets tied to different suppliers and mills. Add warehouses across Europe and North America, and compliance ceases to be a single chain of custody—it becomes a web of interconnected proofs that must be instantly retrievable for audits.
Most industries see compliance as red tape. For the book industry, it could be a differentiator. Publishers who can master this data orchestration can tell a powerful story: not only is their content thought-leading, but their supply chain is future-proof. Imagine being able to say: “This book can be traced back to sustainable forests in Sweden, down to the exact coordinates of the trees used.” In an era of eco-conscious readers, that’s more than compliance—it’s brand equity.
One of the rare reliefs in the EUDR framework is its exemption for 100% recycled material. Books printed entirely on recycled paper bypass the heavy due diligence requirements. For publishers, this isn’t just a compliance shortcut—it’s a chance to align with rising consumer demand for eco-friendly editions. Imagine positioning a book as not only carbon-neutral in distribution but also regulation-free in compliance. That’s a dual win for both sustainability teams and compliance officers.
But here’s the catch: most commercial printing still uses mixed-source paper. And under EUDR, only the recycled fraction is exempt; the virgin fiber portion still requires geolocation and DDS filings. This nuance creates a compliance headache. Publishers may find themselves explaining why their “green” editions still require significant due diligence. The bigger challenge? Making procurement decisions—should they push mills toward more recycled content, or invest in systems to handle mixed-source traceability?
Perhaps the most disruptive shift comes from country risk classification. Under EUDR, the origin of the trees determines the complexity of reporting.
This risk lens effectively reshapes global paper procurement. For printers and publishers, sourcing isn’t just about cost or quality anymore—it’s about regulatory risk management. A mill in Sweden might be safer than one in Brazil, even if prices differ, because the compliance burden downstream is dramatically lighter.
Here’s where the book industry’s mindset needs to flip: EUDR compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines, it’s about optimizing supply chain risk. Procurement teams that once prioritized price-per-tonne of paper now need to consider compliance-per-tonne. Forward-looking publishers can turn this into a narrative: “Our sourcing strategy prioritizes low-risk regions, ensuring your books are not just affordable and beautiful, but also sustainably and responsibly produced.”
Under EUDR, the once-simple book supply chain now carries a layer of legal responsibility:
This reclassification matters: a paper mill and a global publisher may now be seen not just as business partners, but as compliance partners.
Every role is tied together by compliance data. A paper mill failing to provide accurate geolocation data doesn’t just risk its own standing—it creates downstream vulnerability for printers, publishers, and retailers. In effect, one weak link in the chain can jeopardize an entire catalog of books entering the EU. The EUDR turns supply chains into shared accountability ecosystems.
Printers, once seen as service providers, now carry a pivotal role in translating raw supply data into product-level documentation. They are the bridge between mills’ material data and publishers’ DDS obligations. Publishers, on the other hand, must move beyond editorial excellence to become custodians of compliance workflows—integrating geolocation records, edition tracking, and distributor communications into their operational DNA.
Distributors and wholesalers, often overlooked, now play a new role as data custodians. They may not need to file DDS themselves, but they must store, pass along, and validate compliance references. In an audit, the distributor’s records may be the critical final proof of chain of custody.
What’s striking is how EUDR collapses the distance between roles. It forces the entire supply chain—from forest to bookstore shelf—to act as a single compliance organism. Success will depend on collaboration, data-sharing protocols, and digital platforms that break silos. Forward-looking players won’t just ask, “What’s my role?” but instead, “How do I support the next link in the chain?”
Under EUDR, it’s not enough to say that a book is deforestation-free—publishers, printers, and mills must prove it with certificates issued through the EU’s centralized database. These certificates will act as passports for products, confirming that every step of their paper supply chain—from tree harvest to printing press—meets the regulation’s deforestation-free requirements. Without them, books risk being blocked at customs, delaying distribution, or even being denied market entry altogether.
The European Commission is creating a central database that will house:
For the book industry, this database is both a compliance tool and a new operational reality—requiring integration into workflows so that certificates can travel seamlessly alongside manuscripts, ISBNs, and ONIX metadata.
For publishers and suppliers based outside the EU (e.g., in the U.S., India, or Latin America), compliance comes with an additional hurdle: they must appoint an EU-based representative. This representative becomes legally responsible for interacting with the EU database, filing DDS, and ensuring all necessary documentation is in place. In other words, exporting books into the EU now requires not only a supply chain partner but also a regulatory liaison on European soil.
This certificate-and-database model shifts compliance from being a back-office obligation to a frontline operational necessity. Certificates will sit alongside ISBNs and barcodes as identifiers required for trade, and database access will become as essential as bibliographic feeds. For publishers, printers, and mills, the challenge is clear: build systems that treat compliance data with the same rigor as publishing metadata.
The EUDR Compliance platform captures and manages geolocation data from mills, merchants, and pulp suppliers, linking it all the way to finished books. This ensures traceability across every component — text block, endpapers, boards, jackets, and case materials.
Automates DDS generation, securely passes document references along the chain, and integrates with the EU portal. Publishers can demonstrate compliance without drowning in spreadsheets.
Centralizes data in a digital product passport (DPP), linking each batch of pulp or paper reel to its origin. Smart validation tools ensure data accuracy and audit readiness.
Supplier onboarding workflows make it easy for mills, merchants, and printers to upload compliance documents and coordinates. Built-in reminders reduce delays and missing information.
Provides dashboards with supplier risk scoring, alerts for missing DDS data, and reports that can be shared with EU buyers, auditors, and certification bodies.
Automates classification of recycled vs. non-recycled inputs, ensuring only the necessary due diligence is performed.
the book industry — connecting suppliers, simplifying reporting, and ensuring that every printed book can be traced back to responsibly sourced trees.
Would you like me to also map this into a one-page sales sheet (visual-friendly, for publishers and printers) that highlights TraceX’s role step by step in the book supply chain?
EUDR compliance represents a seismic shift for publishers, printers, and mills. What was once a straightforward procurement process for paper now demands traceability back to the very geolocation of trees. While this presents operational and data management challenges, it also creates opportunities for the industry to demonstrate leadership in sustainability and responsible sourcing. By preparing early, aligning with trusted traceability partners, and building internal compliance workflows, the book industry can turn regulation into a competitive advantage and ensure continued access to the EU market.
Your next read:
👉 [EUDR Due Diligence Demystified]
👉 [Geolocation Data: The Core of EUDR Compliance]
👉 [Paper & Pulp Under EUDR: What Changes?]
Because books rely on wood-based paper, publishers and printers must now prove that every component — from text paper to jackets — originates from deforestation-free sources, as required by EUDR.
The biggest challenge is managing traceability data, especially linking tree geolocations through pulp, paper reels, and multiple book components, while keeping records ready for audits.
By setting up internal compliance processes, collaborating with suppliers for geolocation data, adopting digital traceability platforms, and preparing Due Diligence Statements before the 2025/2026 deadlines.
