> there's plenty of incentive for them to order the right amount.

If the incentives to avoid waste were effective in the market, the EU wouldn’t need to introduce regulations to halt it — but their industry is destroying a bit over ten kilos of finished products per person there each year, so the market carrot isn’t working and manufacturers have more than earned the regulatory stick (and can afford the share of profits compliance will cost them).

https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/newsroom/news/many-returned-and... is a good start if you’re unfamiliar with the issue as a whole.