Am I an importer or manufacturer according to the ESPR?

Manufacturer puts its own brand on it, importer brings the product into the EU from outside

Which role applies to you depends on what you do with the product, not on your company's name or the sector you work in. Whoever designs a product, has it manufactured or manufactures it themselves and places it on the market under their own name or brand is a manufacturer within the meaning of Article 27 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). Whoever places a product manufactured outside the EU on the EU market for the first time is an importer within the meaning of Article 29. Both roles do not exclude each other for an entire company: the same company can be a manufacturer for one product — for example by having its own brand produced at a factory in the Netherlands — and an importer for another product, if that product is purchased elsewhere and resold under an existing foreign brand.

For whom this distinction matters, and for whom it does not

This distinction is relevant for every company that places electronics or ICT equipment on the EU market, regardless of size. It applies as soon as a product is sold under a name or brand that is not that of the original manufacturer, or as soon as a product is brought in from outside the EU. It is not relevant for a party that exclusively resells a product from another EU market participant without changing the brand and without importing it from outside the EU: that party generally falls under a different role (distributor), with obligations other than those in Article 27 and Article 29. Nor is someone who only supplies components to a manufacturer, without placing a finished product on the market themselves, a manufacturer in this sense for that component. The question is therefore always: who places the product, under which brand, on the EU market for the first time — and does it come from within or from outside the EU.

From when this distinction will apply

An exact date has not yet been set. The obligations under Article 27 and Article 29 are made concrete per product category through delegated acts under the ESPR work plan 2025-2030; for electronics and ICT equipment, these acts are expected per subcategory from 2027 onwards. Until a delegated act for a specific subcategory is published, no concrete requirements apply to that category for the digital product passport, and therefore no clearly defined obligations are linked to the role of manufacturer or importer. Once the act for a subcategory is published, the date on this platform will be updated.

How you determine which role fits you

The first question is where the product comes from: is it made within the EU or outside it. If it comes from outside the EU and your company places it on the EU market for the first time, the role of importer is the starting point, with the obligations of Article 29. The second question is under whose name or brand the product is sold: if your own brand or name is on the product, or if you have had it designed or produced, then the role of manufacturer is the starting point, with the obligations of Article 27 — even if the physical production is carried out by an external party. These two questions can apply at the same time: a company that has products manufactured in a factory outside the EU and sells them under its own brand in the EU is for that product both the party that places it on the EU market for the first time and the party under whose brand it is sold. In the practice of ESPR-like legislation, in such a case the role of manufacturer is applied, because the own brand is decisive — but this is something that is determined in detail per delegated act and per situation, and is not something this platform makes a statement about in advance. The third step is to check whether the same question must be asked separately for each product: a company with multiple product lines can be a manufacturer for one line and an importer for another, and this can have consequences for who compiles and submits the product passport.

Where this is stated: Article 27 and Article 29 ESPR

The obligations associated with the manufacturer role are set out in Article 27 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). The obligations associated with the importer role are set out in Article 29 of the same regulation. Both articles describe what is expected of the respective party regarding placing the product on the market and the associated information, and thus also implicitly define who is considered a manufacturer and who is considered an importer for that product. For the complete and current text of both articles, the official publication in EUR-Lex is the source.

If you wish to determine which role applies to a specific product, start by working through the two questions above — origin of the product and the brand under which it is sold — and compare that with the text of Article 27 and Article 29 in the official publication. Once a delegated act has been published for the relevant product category of electronics or ICT equipment, that is the moment to re-assess this role determination against the category-specific requirements that then apply.

What this is based on

The regulation itself is on EUR-Lex. We provide references per statement; you do not have to take our word for it.

What you must concretely do

What is expected of you

The ESPR makes a distinction between the manufacturer and the importer, and that distinction is not cosmetic: it determines who bears which obligation. In short, the manufacturer is the one who designs the product or has it produced and places it on the market under its own name or brand. The importer is the one who obtains a product from a country outside the EU and places it on the EU market for the first time. Who actually falls into which role depends on what appears on the packaging, invoice and in the commercial relationship — not on how a company names itself.

A company that has electronics manufactured in Asia and sells them under its own brand name is a manufacturer for the purposes of the ESPR, even if it has no production line of its own. A company that purchases ready-made devices from a non-EU manufacturer and distributes them in the EU without changing the brand is an importer. Failing to make this distinction clearly risks missing obligations that actually do rest on one's own business. For the precise demarcation, see also who is responsible for the product passport for electronics.

As a manufacturer: ensure that the product and the passport are correct

Article 27 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) imposes obligations on the manufacturer that relate to the core of the product: ensuring that it is designed and manufactured in accordance with the requirements applicable to the product group, and that the product passport is compiled with the correct data and is available. For a company of 10 to 100 employees, this practically means that someone within the organisation must know which technical and environmental data about the product are available, and that this data is recorded somewhere before the product leaves the premises. This is often a matter of internal coordination between procurement, quality and the party that actually creates or has created the passport.

As an importer: check before you place on the market

Article 29 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) places a checking role on the importer: to verify that the manufacturer outside the EU has fulfilled its obligations, and that the product upon import is already provided with a product passport that meets the requirements. For an importing company, this means that before the first shipment enters the EU, there must already be visibility of what the foreign supplier has prepared. This is a different sequence than with the manufacturer: the importer does not create the passport itself, but must be able to demonstrate that it has been checked for correctness. If that foreign manufacturer does not respond or fails to provide a passport, this is a situation that deserves attention in advance, when establishing the supplier relationship — see also my manufacturer is outside the European Union how that responsibility is then divided.

Both roles: make name and address known

Both manufacturer and importer are expected to state their name, registered business name or brand name and contact address on the product, packaging or accompanying documentation. For a smaller company, this is often a matter of adapting labels or packaging texts, something that is easily overlooked when the focus is on the passport itself and not on the physical labelling.

Where things go wrong in practice

A common situation is a company that has products manufactured under its own brand, but continues to regard itself internally as a "trader" because it has no production facility of its own. Legally, that company is a manufacturer, with the obligations of Article 27 — not those of an intermediary. If you are uncertain about this, you will find more information about this position at I sell electronics under my own brand.

A second situation: a company imports a product from a manufacturer outside the EU and assumes that the manufacturer has already taken care of the passport, without ever having asked or checked. In a later inspection, it turns out that there is no passport, or a passport with incorrect data — and then the question of who was responsible for this back then is no longer merely theoretical.

A third situation: private label procurement, where a company purchases an existing product from a manufacturer and only applies its own label to it. This often creates uncertainty about who is actually the "manufacturer" under the regulation. The practical implementation of those obligations is found at I sell private label electronics.

A fourth situation arises with companies that procure within the EU from another EU party and believe this keeps them out of scope. Here too, the question may arise whether reselling without modification to the product entails different obligations than when the product is processed or repackaged.

A fifth: companies that think the role allocation is determined once and then no longer relevant, whereas a change in the procurement process — for instance switching from an EU supplier to a supplier outside the EU — can shift their own role from distributor to importer without this being noticed within the company.

What you can document

An internal note documenting which role the company performs per product line (manufacturer, importer, or both for different products), with the reasoning behind it.
Correspondence with the foreign manufacturer requesting information about the status of the product passport before the first delivery.
An overview of which data are already available internally for compiling a passport, and who within the company is the contact point for this.
Agreements with suppliers about who supplies which data, especially for private label or own-brand products.
A documented procedure for checking incoming products for the presence of the passport, as part of the regular procurement process.
Documentation of name and address details on packaging or product, to support that this identifiability requirement has been met.

Anyone who, after determining their own role, wants to know what happens if one of these steps is missing, will find that at what happens if I don't have a product passport for my electronics.

This is not legal advice. This page provides general information about the regulations that this platform covers. We are not familiar with your situation. If you are in doubt about your own case, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.

Written with AI based on the sources above, checked by a human on 2026-08-22. Is something incorrect? Let us know — corrections take priority.