EU PFAS Rules for Clothing: The PFHxA Limit from 10 October 2026 and What to Ask Your Factory

From 10 October 2026, clothing, related accessories and footwear for the general public may not be placed on the EU market if any homogeneous material in them contains PFHxA and its salts at 25 parts per billion (ppb) or more, or PFHxA-related substances at 1,000 ppb or more. Garments placed on the EU market before that day are exempt, and for goods made outside the EU, import counts as placing on the market. The rule is entry 79 of REACH Annex XVII, added by Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/2462.

PFHxA is one group of PFAS, not the whole class. No EU law yet restricts every PFAS in clothing: a proposal covering the class is still with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and no date has been set for garments. France and Denmark have gone further, with national bans that already apply. This guide covers the EU limit and its exemptions, the older PFAS rules, the two national bans, the universal proposal and the documents to ask your factory for, each rule checked against its official text. It is written from the factory side for brands importing knitwear into Europe, and it is a planning aid, not legal advice. Last verified: 23 September 2026.

What to do, and by when

The terms, defined

Most confusion about PFAS rules comes from a handful of words used loosely. These are the meanings the legal texts give them.

What the 10 October 2026 limit covers

Paragraph 1 of entry 79 names five product groups for the general public. Two concern a clothing brand: textiles, leather, furs and hides in clothing and related accessories, and footwear. The regulation's recitals give outdoor clothing such as rain jackets as an example of the first group, and handbags as an example of a related accessory.

The limits are low, and they are applied material by material:

• 25 ppb for the sum of PFHxA and its salts.
• 1,000 ppb for the sum of PFHxA-related substances.
• Measured in homogeneous material, not averaged across the garment. On a plain reading of “textiles, leather, furs and hides in clothing”, a lining, a trim or a leather patch is in scope like the main fabric, so plan for each to be judged on its own.

Paragraph 1 bars these substances from being placed on the market or used in these products at or above the limits. Because REACH treats import as placing on the market, the rule reaches garments sewn outside the EU in the same way as garments sewn inside it, and ECHA describes the restriction as applying across the EU and the EEA.

Why clothing? Recital 1 records large quantities of PFHxA-related substances used in textiles. Recital 5 notes that the Risk Assessment Committee counted wide consumer use in textiles among the major emission sources that risk management cannot minimise, recital 14 records the Commission's view that alternatives are available for the uses it targets, and recital 17 that alternatives for water-repellent properties appear to be available. In practice that points at repellent finishes, which is where your questions to the factory should start.

Why you may have read April 2026

Entry 79 carries four dates, and the earliest is 10 April 2026. That date sits in paragraph 4 and applies only to firefighting foams used for training and testing and by public fire services. A summary that gives April 2026 as the start of the PFHxA restriction is right about the entry but wrong for clothing. For clothing, related accessories and footwear the date is 10 October 2026, in paragraph 1, which recital 24 explains as a 24-month transition. Other consumer textiles follow on 10 October 2027, and civil aviation foams on 10 October 2029.

What is exempt, and what is not

• Stock already on the market. Paragraph 7 disapplies the October 2026 limit to articles placed on the market before 10 October 2026. The next section explains why the date that counts is the day a shipment enters the EU.
• Category III protective equipment covering the risks in points (a), (c) to (f), (h) and (l) of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2016/425 (paragraph 3).
• Medical devices. Devices within Regulation (EU) 2017/745, and in vitro diagnostic devices within Regulation (EU) 2017/746 (paragraph 3).
• Construction textiles (paragraph 3), which recital 18 illustrates with membranes, reinforcement fabric, textile façade substructures, insulation and textile roofing systems.
• Substances banned elsewhere. Paragraph 6 leaves out substances with a C6F13– group attached to a sulphur atom, such as PFHxS, that the POPs Regulation already prohibits.

The entry has no exemption for small businesses or small quantities, for a first order, or for garments sewn or ordered before the date but shipped after it, and no separate rule for goods sold online. Paragraph 1 names clothing “for the general public”; if you make workwear sold only to employers, whether it falls inside is a question for your adviser rather than something to assume.

Why the import date is the one that counts

The exemption turns on when a garment was placed on the market, and REACH defines that term. Under Article 3(12), placing on the market means supplying or making available to a third party, and the same definition adds: “Import shall be deemed to be placing on the market.” Article 3(10) defines import as the physical introduction into the customs territory. A carton that enters the EU on 9 October 2026 is exempt stock. An identical carton entering on 10 October must meet the limit, however long ago it was cut and sewn.

Recital 25 puts the burden on the supplier: the exemption covers articles for which the supplier can demonstrate that they were placed on the market before the date. For every shipment arriving close to 10 October 2026, keep the import declaration, commercial invoice and transport documents together, and if an EU stockist or logistics partner acts as importer, ask it to keep the same records for your goods.

10 October 2027: other consumer textiles

Paragraph 2 applies the same limits from 10 October 2027 to textiles, leather, furs and hides for the general public other than those in clothing and related accessories. Recital 17 lists carpets, rugs, curtains, blinds, upholstery, textile wall coverings and other textile-based coverings such as tablecloths and bed linen, including those used in transport, public places and offices. A clothing brand that adds non-clothing textiles such as towels, blankets or cushion covers to its range should plan for this second date. Paragraph 8 exempts articles in this group placed on the market before 10 October 2027, and recital 24 explains the date as a 36-month transition.

What to ask your factory and dye house for

The law sets a concentration in the finished material, so the evidence that matters is a document about your fabric rather than a general assurance. ECHA gives water and grease repellency as an example of what PFAS are used for, and names textiles, leather and apparel among the major sectors that use them. Ask for these before bulk fabric is finished, while changing a finish is still cheap:

• A finishing declaration for each fabric. Every chemical finish the mill or dye house applied, and a plain yes or no on whether any water-, oil- or stain-repellent finish was used. A style with no repellent finish should say so in writing.
• A written requirement. A line in the tech pack and on the purchase order stating that no PFAS-based finishes or repellents may be used. It turns an assumption into a specification the factory has accepted.
• If you need repellency, the finish's trade name, the chemical supplier's safety data sheet and a written statement of whether it is fluorine-free.
• A test report on the finished fabric. From an accredited laboratory, on fabric from the bulk lot after dyeing and finishing, reporting PFHxA and its salts and PFHxA-related substances against 25 ppb and 1,000 ppb. Have the same report cover PFOA, PFHxS, PFOS and the C9–C14 PFCAs, which EU law already restricts.
• The method and the reporting limit. When the Risk Assessment Committee reviewed this restriction it noted that standard analytical methods still had to be developed, although commercial methods were available. A result of “not detected” only helps if the laboratory's reporting limit sits below 25 ppb.
• Separate samples and matching lots. Have the outer fabric and any coated or treated trim, such as tapes, drawcords or patches, tested as separate samples, and make sure the report names the fabric quality and lot it covers. A report on another cloth or last season's lot is weak evidence for this order.
• The national values, if you sell there. For France, results against its targeted-analysis and total-fluorine values; for Denmark, total fluorine for each component. The EU entry requires neither.

A declaration is the supplier's word; a test report is a measurement of your fabric. A certificate held by a mill or a factory describes its chemical controls, and a scheme that bans PFAS as an input tells you what a finishing unit may use, not what is in your cloth. Ask for the report when you approve the pre-production sample, so there is time to change fabric if it fails, and file it in the technical file that our GPSR guide describes.

On our side, bulk fabric is dyed to your approved lab dip at partner units that treat their effluent, and we can supply test reports. If a style needs a documented PFAS result, tell us at quote stage which markets you sell into, France and Denmark included, and we can arrange third-party laboratory testing of that fabric and its trims and send the report with the shipment. Our page for European brands covers how we work with EU buyers, from 100 pieces per style, per colour.

Every EU-level PFAS rule that reaches a garment

PFHxA is not the first PFAS the EU has restricted, which is why a test report should cover the older rules too. They differ in wording as well as in number: REACH forbids a substance at or above its limit, while the POPs Regulation bans the substance outright and tolerates it only as an unintentional trace contaminant up to its limit.

France and Denmark already ban PFAS in consumer clothing

France did not wait for the EU. Article L524-1 of the Code de l'environnement, created by Loi n° 2025-188 of 27 February 2025, has banned since 1 January 2026 the manufacture, import, export and placing on the market, paid or free, of clothing textile products, footwear and waterproofing agents for them that are intended for consumers and contain PFAS. Clothing and footwear designed for the protection and safety of people, notably in national defence and civil security, are excepted, with the list set out by decree. From 1 January 2030 the ban extends to textile products generally, except those needed for essential uses, those serving national sovereignty where no substitute exists, and technical textiles for industrial use.

Décret n° 2025-1376 of 28 December 2025, in force from 1 January 2026, sets the residual values at or below which a product is not caught: 25 ppb for any single PFAS measured by targeted analysis, excluding polymers; 250 ppb for the sum of PFAS measured that way, where relevant after breaking down precursors; and 50 ppm for PFAS including polymers. Where total fluorine exceeds 50 mg per kilogram, the manufacturer, importer, exporter or business placing the product on the market must give the authorities, on request, proof of whether that fluorine comes from PFAS or from other substances. The decree excepts protective equipment under Regulation (EU) 2016/425 and equipment for the armed forces, internal security and civil protection, waterproofing agents for re-proofing it, and clothing and footwear with at least 20% post-consumer recycled material, where the PFAS allowed is proportional to the recycled share. Products made before 1 January 2026 may be placed on the market or exported for at most twelve months from that date.

In Denmark, executive order no. 464 of 2 May 2025 has been in force since 1 July 2025, and its bans took effect on 1 July 2026. Businesses may not import or sell clothing or footwear for private use in which at least one component contains 50 mg of total fluorine per kilogram or more, nor waterproofing agents for them at that level, and private individuals may not import them either. The ban does not apply where the fluorine comes from a substance that is not a PFAS, which the Danish Environmental Protection Agency may ask you to document. Reused and recycled clothing, certain protective equipment, medical devices and goods in transit are exempt, PFAS already regulated under REACH or the POPs Regulation fall outside the order, and businesses may sell from existing stock until 1 January 2027.

The practical difference from the EU rule is scope: both countries look at PFAS as a class, so a garment that passes the PFHxA limit can still fail in France or Denmark if another PFAS is present. Our pages for French and Danish brands cover the other rules in each market. This guide checked only these two national laws, so check the current rules in any other country you sell into.

The universal PFAS restriction: where it stands

The proposal to restrict PFAS as a class came from the national authorities of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, who submitted it to ECHA on 13 January 2023. It covers all PFAS and all uses, clothing among them. It is not law, and no date has been set on which it would apply to garments. The steps so far, from ECHA's own announcements:

• 2 March 2026: the Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) adopted its final opinion, concluding that the measures in place are not sufficient to control PFAS emissions and that further EU-wide action is needed.
• 10 March 2026: the Socio-Economic Analysis Committee (SEAC) agreed a draft opinion supporting a broad restriction with targeted derogations, where the evidence shows alternatives are not available and costs and benefits justify them.
• 26 March to 25 May 2026: a consultation on SEAC's draft, which drew 3,511 comments from more than 3,200 organisations and 250 individuals.
• June 2026: at SEAC's 71st meeting, the rapporteurs were tasked with preparing the final opinion, to be tabled tentatively at SEAC-73.
• By the end of 2026 (expected): SEAC adopts its final opinion. The European Commission then proposes a restriction for discussion and a vote in the REACH Committee of member states.

Which derogations survive, what the final text says about clothing and how long any transition runs are all still open, so treat any published end date for PFAS in EU clothing as a forecast until the Commission's proposal appears. Specifying fabrics without PFAS-based finishes now answers the PFHxA limit, the French and Danish laws and the direction ECHA's committees support, all at once.

Where PFAS limits sit among your other EU obligations

The PFHxA limit is a chemical restriction on the product itself, so it sits alongside the other EU rules for clothing rather than inside them. The General Product Safety Regulation asks who answers for a garment's safety and what records back it, which our GPSR guide covers. Producer responsibility fees are in the EU textile EPR guide, label content in labelling requirements by country, and cords, drawstrings and small parts in children's clothing safety rules. None of them replaces a test report: a garment can be registered for EPR and documented under GPSR and still breach entry 79.

Sources

Last verified: 23 September 2026. We checked each date, limit and article number above against these sources that day. ECHA's timetable for the universal proposal is an expectation rather than a legal deadline, so check it again before you rely on it.

• EUR-Lex — Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/2462 (PFHxA, REACH Annex XVII entry 79)
• EUR-Lex — REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, consolidated text of 22 June 2026
• EUR-Lex — Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1297 (C9–C14 PFCAs, entry 68)
• EUR-Lex — Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/784 (PFOA)
• EUR-Lex — Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/718 (PFOS)
• EUR-Lex — Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1608 (PFHxS)
• ECHA — Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
• ECHA — ECHA supports PFAS restriction with targeted derogations (26 March 2026)
• Légifrance — Code de l'environnement, Articles L524-1 and L524-2
• Légifrance — Décret n° 2025-1376 du 28 décembre 2025
• Retsinformation — Bekendtgørelse nr. 464 af 2. maj 2025

The full list, including the amendment records and ECHA's committee papers, is at the foot of this page.