José Luis Abajo earned Spain's first men's individual épée medal with his bronze.

Men's foil was the first event to which this applied to, so the 2008 individual épée competition continued to allow three fencers per nation.

Next, the top 3 men in the FIE Individual Ranking received spots.

Finally, five spots were allocated by continental qualifying events: 2 from Europe, 1 from the Americas, 1 from Asia/Oceania, and 1 from Africa.

China used only 2 of those places to max out its representation in all events (both in the men's épée, for which only Wang Lei qualified directly), so 6 spots were assigned by Tripartite Commission invitation.

The épée competition, following the format introduced in 1996, consisted of a six-round single-elimination bracket with a bronze medal match between the two semifinal losers.