my company is being taken over what happens to the product passports

What you must concretely do

What is expected of you

A merger or acquisition changes nothing in the question of whether a digital product passport is required — that obligation is tied to the product, not to the owner of the business that placed it on the market. What does change is who is responsible for the content, hosting and accessibility of that passport. Article 9 and article 10 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) set out what a digital product passport must contain and how it must remain accessible; these requirements continue to apply in full, even if the legal entity behind the product changes.

The passport remains in existence even if the manufacturer disappears

In a merger, this may involve a business that merges into another, with a new name and new legal form. In an acquisition, the legal entity often remains, but the shareholder changes. In both cases, the product that has already been placed on the market remains under the old name, with the old passport. Article 10 of the ESPR requires that the passport remain accessible for the specified period — this does not change due to a business acquisition. In practical terms, for a business of 10 to 100 employees, this means that the hosting arrangements and QR data carriers that have already been issued must continue to work, even if the legal entity behind the brand changes.

Who signs for new products after the acquisition

For products placed on the market after the merger or acquisition, the question arises again: who is the manufacturer, who is the importer, and who bears responsibility for the passport? Article 27 of the ESPR describes the obligations of manufacturers, and those obligations follow the legal entity that places the product on the market. If after an acquisition a new entity places the products on the market — for example because the acquiring party uses its own sales company — then the question who is responsible for the product passport of electronics? arises again, even if the underlying product remains unchanged.

The register must remain accurate

Article 13 of the ESPR regulates the register of digital product passports. A change of name, address or change in the legal entity responsible is information that may be recorded in the passport and in the underlying registration. For a business going through a merger, this means that the question of who manages the contact details, the declaration of conformity and the technical documentation does not automatically transfer — this must happen in fact, and someone must manage that process.

Selling under your own brand after acquisition

Takeovers in the electronics sector are regularly accompanied by brand mergers, or by transferring a product line to the brand of the acquiring party. Whoever does that may thereby change their own position in the supply chain. The question I sell electronics under my own brand — what obligations do I get? is then not only theoretical: it determines who from that moment on is responsible for the accuracy of the passport of the products involved.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations recur regularly in mergers and takeovers in the electronics sector.

The hosting of the passport is in the name of an entity that disappears. If the passport was hosted via a contract in the name of the acquired B.V., and that B.V. is legally dissolved after the merger, the accessibility of existing passports may be jeopardized without anyone having flagged it as a separate point of attention during the takeover discussions.

Technical documentation remains with the selling party. In a takeover of only certain product lines or part of the enterprise (a "carve-out") it can happen that the underlying files, test reports and declarations of conformity remain with the selling party, while the trademark rights and the obligation to maintain the passport transfer to the buyer.

No one checks whether the new entity already has a WEEE registration. A merger can result in electronics being placed on the market under a new legal entity. The question do I need to register for waste electrical equipment? is then a separate step that is separate from the product passport, but in practice is often missed in the same transition period.

The QR code refers to a domain that is discontinued after the takeover. When the brand of the acquired party disappears and the website is shut down, the QR data carrier on already sold products can in practice lead to a dead link, unless the redirect has been arranged beforehand.

Unclear who is liable for errors from the period before the takeover. If after the merger an error is discovered in a passport that dates from the period before the takeover, the question arises who is liable if there is an error in the product passport — a question that ideally has already been addressed in the takeover agreement, not only afterwards.

What you can document

• An overview of all active product passports and the hosting contracts associated with them, including the term of each hosting agreement.
• A list of the legal entities that according to Article 27 of the ESPR are designated as manufacturer or importer for each product, and how that changes due to the merger or takeover.
• Arrangements in the takeover agreement about who transfers the technical documentation and declarations of conformity, and at what time.
• A transfer document for the contact details and login details of the passport register as referred to in Article 13 of the ESPR.
• A check that the QR data carriers on already sold products continue to work after the takeover, including arrangements regarding domain management.
• A documented agreement on liability for errors that arose before the takeover date, so that who signs off on conformity it is clear for products from the period before and after the transaction.