EU lead restrictions are final – what the tackle trade needs to know
Despite strong efforts by EFTTA and EAA (European Anglers Alliance), neither the European Parliament nor the Council objected to the proposal during the three-month scrutiny period.
EFTTA and EAA had called for the proposal to be reconsidered to ensure that the sales ban would be accompanied by a use ban. Those efforts have not succeeded.
The EU restrictions on lead in fishing tackle will therefore become law without an EU-wide use ban for recreational angling.
The Regulation can now proceed to publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, expected in autumn 2026, and will enter into force 20 days after publication.
What changes – and when?
For recreational angling, the new legislation restricts the sale of certain lead fishing tackle, but not its use. For commercial fishing, both sales and use restrictions will apply.
The sales restrictions will be phased in:
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After 6 months: fishing wires and drop-in sinkers
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After 3 years: sinkers and lures weighing 50 g or less
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After 5 years: sinkers and lures weighing more than 50 g and up to 1 kg
As a general rule, products covered by the restriction may contain less than 1% lead by weight.
Exceptions include:
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lures made from copper alloys containing less than 3% lead;
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split shot weighing 0.06 g or less, if sold in spill-proof and child-resistant packaging.
What does the tackle trade need to do?
Manufacturers, importers and distributors
Companies should start reviewing their product ranges and supply chains now and identify which products are affected by the different phase-out periods.
Products exceeding the applicable lead limits will have to be removed from the EU market by the relevant deadlines.
Retailers: warning information at POS (see Annex cutting below)
From six months after the Regulation enters into force, retailers selling sinkers and lures containing 1% lead or more must provide the prescribed warning information.
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In physical shops: the information must be displayed at the point of sale and in close proximity to the products concerned.
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For online sales: the information must be included in the distance sales offer
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Language: the information must be provided in the official language(s) of the country in which the product is sold
The warning must inform consumers that the product contains lead, refer to the environmental and health risks and indicate the relevant EU phase-out dates.
Once the Regulation has been published and the exact dates are known, EFTTA will provide its members with a template for the required POS warning information.
What about product labelling?
Despite former information indicating that individual product packaging would also need to carry a warning, no specific packaging labelling requirement has been established in the current Regulation.
Based on the current legal text, the requirement is therefore to provide the prescribed information at the physical point of sale or in the online sales offer. No additional warning label on individual fishing tackle products or their packaging is required under the current text.
Should additional formal implementation guidance be published by the European Commission or ECHA, EFTTA will inform the trade immediately.
A disappointing outcome
EFTTA and EAA consider the final outcome disappointing.
The Regulation is the result of many years of scientific assessment, consultation and legislative work aimed at creating an effective EU-wide solution to the health and environmental risks associated with lead in fishing tackle. The tackle trade has also been preparing for this transition for many years, investing in alternative materials and progressively moving towards lead-free solutions.
Yet over the course of successive drafts, both the scope of the restriction and its implementation have been watered down. The originally proposed EU-wide sales and use restriction for recreational angling has become a sales-only restriction, while earlier provisions envisaging information on individual product packaging have resulted in a point-of-sale information requirement.
Taken together, these changes raise questions about how effective the Regulation will be in achieving its intended environmental and health objectives.
Lead tackle already owned by anglers can continue to be used, products prohibited from sale may potentially enter through illegal imports, and the warning information required at the point of sale does not necessarily remain with the product after purchase.
EFTTA and EAA had argued for a clear and consistent EU-wide approach: a sales and use restriction applying equally across all Member States. This would also have reduced the risk of different national rules developing across Europe.
What happens next? Hope now turns to Member States
The EU decision is now final. However, the Regulation does not harmonise the recreational use of lead fishing tackle across Europe.
Member States remain free to introduce or maintain their own restrictions on use. So there is still hope that Member States will combine the sales ban with restrictions on use. At the same time, different national approaches could result in further fragmentation of the European market.
EFTTA and EAA will closely follow these developments together with their members and national partners. Where national use restrictions are considered, both organisations will advocate for practical, proportionate and effective solutions and, as far as possible, consistency across Europe.
For the tackle trade, however, the immediate priority is clear: identify the products affected, prepare for the respective phase-out deadlines and implement the new point-of-sale information requirements.
EFTTA will keep the trade informed as the Regulation is published and its implementation begins.
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Further information
➡️ EU Commission Regulation and Annex – full legal text, including other language versions
➡️ Joint EAA & EFTTA Press release, June 2026
Cutting from the Annex:
Warning information at POS (for retailers, online sellers)
22. From [Publication Office: insert date 6 months after EIF of this Regulation], retailers of fishing sinkers and lures of any dimension or weight, containing lead in concentrations equal to or greater than 1% by weight, shall clearly and visibly display the following information, at the point of sale and in close proximity to the products mentioned above or, in the case of distance sales, in the distance sales offer:
‘WARNING: this product contains lead which is very toxic to the environment and may damage fertility or the unborn child. The placing on the market and use of lead in the fishing tackle listed below is restricted in the EU from:
- [Publication Office: insert date 3 years after EIF of this Regulation] for sinkers and lures weighing 50 g or less
- [Publication Office: insert date 5 years after EIF of this Regulation] for sinkers and lures weighing 1 kg or less, but more than 50 g.
- [Publication Office: insert date 6 months after EIF of this Regulation] for fishing wires and drop-in sinkers of any weight.
More information, including on the availability of lead-free alternatives, is available at [www.echa.europa.eu]’
The warning information shall be in the official languages of the Member State where the point of sale is established or, in the case of distance sales, in the official languages of the Member State where the distance sale is offered, unless the Member State concerned provides otherwise regarding those languages.
