Product eco-design for SMEs: the 2026 rules

Quick answer. Product eco-design now reaches SMEs through three converging frameworks: the French AGEC law of 10 February 2020 (repairability index, then durability index, scored out of 10), the European ESPR regulation 2024/1781 with its digital product passport, and the EPR schemes. Designing a repairable, durable and recyclable product becomes both a gradual obligation and a commercial argument.

For many directors, eco-design is still a communication word. In 2026, it has become a concrete regulatory topic: a poorly designed product shows a bad score, bears a heavier eco-contribution and may, soon, no longer be placed on the European market. This article reviews the rules framing product eco-design for an SME, and the points where an accountant adds costed value, without replacing the engineering office.

Eco-design means building the environment into a product from the start, across its whole life cycle: choice of materials, manufacturing, transport, use, repair and end of life. The aim is not only to cut the carbon footprint, but also to extend lifespan, ease repair and enable recycling.

Three frameworks now overlap: the French AGEC law, the European ESPR regulation, and the extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes. No SME that produces or imports consumer goods fully escapes these three logics.

The anti-waste law for a circular economy, known as the AGEC law (law no. 2020-105 of 10 February 2020), introduced the repairability index. Shown as a score out of 10, it tells the consumer how repairable a product is. It has applied since 1 January 2021 to several categories of electrical and electronic equipment (smartphones, laptops, washing machines, televisions), later extended to dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, high-pressure washers and electric mowers.

Since 2024, a durability index has gradually taken over. Still scored out of 10, it adds further criteria: reliability, robustness and upgradeability (software updates, hardware improvement). Where it exists for a category, the durability index replaces the repairability index.

For an SME that makes or imports such equipment, the score is not just a display: it weighs on the buying decision and, in time, on the eco-contribution owed to the scheme's eco-organisation.

At European level, the ecodesign for sustainable products regulation, known as ESPR (regulation EU 2024/1781), adopted on 13 June 2024 and in force since 18 July 2024, replaces the old 2009 ecodesign directive. Its scope is far wider: it no longer targets only energy-using products, but almost all products placed on the market, except food and medicines.

ESPR introduces the digital product passport. This electronic identity card for the product will gather information on its composition, repairability, recyclability and footprint. The roll-out is gradual, category by category, over 2026 to 2030, starting with priority sectors such as textiles. For an SME, the stake is to anticipate product-data collection well before its category's deadline.

In the files we follow, eco-design slowly shifts from the register of image to that of compliance and cost. Our conviction: the SME that waits until the last minute will face the topic twice, commercially (bad score displayed) and financially (higher eco-contribution, redesign under pressure).

Conversely, treating eco-design as a steered investment, with a timeline and a budget, turns it into a lever: better score, lower eco-contribution thanks to eco-modulation, and a differentiating argument with ever more attentive buyers. The right reflex is not to do everything at once, but to prioritise high-volume products with the greatest regulatory exposure.

Two risks are regularly overlooked. The first is the offence of planned obsolescence: deliberately shortening a product's lifespan is punished by the consumer code, with a penalty of up to 2 years' imprisonment and a fine whose amount can be raised to a percentage of turnover. The second is the ban on destroying non-food unsold goods, in force since 1 January 2022: unsold products must first be reused or donated, on pain of sanction.

For an SME, these two rules turn seemingly internal decisions (declared lifespan, management of dormant stock) into compliance topics with a real financial impact.

Let us be clear: the technical design of a product belongs to the engineering office, not the accounting firm. The accountant works on its own ground:

• Costing the eco-contribution: estimating the cost of EPR schemes by volume and eco-modulation scales, then folding it into the cost price.
• Accounting treatment: telling capitalisable spending (tooling, product redesign) from expenses, a topic detailed in our article on the accounting for environmental spending.
• Return on investment: setting the cost of eco-design against expected savings and secured contracts.
• Consistency with reporting: linking with sustainability obligations, notably the circular-economy strand of the ESRS standards, covered in our analysis of ESRS E5 circular economy.

This is the angle of our support in CSR and CSRD sustainability reporting.

An SME importing small household appliances shows an average repairability score of 6 out of 10. A retailer requires, for 2026, a minimum score of 7 out of 10 on its listed references. Reviewing the file, we cost two scenarios: improving documentation and spare-part availability to gain nearly a point, or fully redesigning two products. The first scenario, estimated at a few thousand euros per reference and feasible within 6 months, is enough to cross the threshold and keep the listing. The calculation, set out plainly, avoids a costly redesign decided in a panic.

• Durability index: check whether your product category shifts from the repairability index to the more demanding durability index.
• ESPR and digital passport: anticipate product-data collection, even if your category's deadline is not yet set.
• Eco-modulation: better eco-design lowers the eco-contribution; this gain must be costed, not assumed.
• Unsold goods and obsolescence: secure the management of dormant stock and the declared lifespan, two often-ignored sources of sanction.