EURATEX supports the objective of reducing PFAS emissions and accelerating the transition towards safer and more sustainable alternatives. The European textile and apparel industry has already made significant progress in reducing PFAS use and continues to invest in substitution wherever technically feasible.
However, an effective EU PFAS restriction for textiles must also be measurable, enforceable and workable in practice. Setting legal limits alone is not enough: companies, laboratories and enforcement authorities need clear rules on how compliance should be tested, how analytical results should be interpreted and how unavoidable background contamination should be treated.
In its new position paper, “Making PFAS compliance possible for the European textile industry”, EURATEX identifies four essential conditions for successful implementation: analytical readiness, legal certainty, compatibility with circularity and regulatory coherence.
Among its key recommendations, EURATEX calls for a tiered compliance approach, starting with Total Fluorine screening and moving to more targeted PFAS testing only where scientifically justified. Regulatory thresholds should reflect validated analytical capabilities and measurement uncertainty, while compliance rules should distinguish between intentional PFAS use and unavoidable background or cross-contamination.
Particular attention is also needed for recycled textile materials. Legacy PFAS may remain in products manufactured years before current restrictions existed. EURATEX therefore calls for a coherent approach that protects textile-to-textile recycling while preventing new intentional PFAS inputs.
Finally, the Universal PFAS Restriction should be aligned with existing REACH restrictions, the POPs Regulation and national PFAS measures. Companies should not face overlapping rules with different thresholds, testing methods or interpretation criteria for the same substances.
EURATEX believes that analytical readiness and legal certainty are not arguments for delaying environmental action. They are necessary conditions to make PFAS regulation effective, credible and consistently enforceable across Europe.
Read the full EURATEX position paper: Making PFAS compliance possible for the European textile industry