Who is affected
Any company placing physical products on the EU market, in the product groups covered by a delegated act; online marketplaces and dealers for the information duties; large and later medium-sized companies for the destruction ban on unsold goods.
Key obligations
- 01Meet product-specific ecodesign requirements (durability, repairability, recycled content, carbon and environmental footprint) once the delegated act applies
- 02Provide a digital product passport with the data model, carrier and access rights set per product group
- 03Register the passport identifier in the EU registry before placing the product on the market
- 04Disclose and, for large companies, stop the destruction of unsold consumer goods
- 05Keep technical documentation and conformity evidence for market surveillance
What it means for your passport
ESPR fixes the architecture that every sector-specific act then fills: a unique product identifier, a data carrier, interoperable data exchange, a registry and a decentralised storage model. Building the passport platform against ESPR's horizontal rules means each delegated act becomes a data-model change, not a new system.
Delegated acts
Requirements arrive product group by product group through delegated acts. Each one defines the passport's data fields, who may read what, the granularity (model, batch or item) and the date obligations begin, typically 18 months after adoption.
Registry and data carrier
Unique identifiers go to the Commission's registry; the carrier (QR code or other) sits on the product, its packaging or its documentation. Customs can check the registry at the border, so the identifier has to exist before shipment.
