What happens if I don't have a digital product passport for my electronics?

What you must concretely do

What is expected of you

The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is the framework regulation that enables the digital product passport. The concrete obligations — which product, which data, from which date — come per product group in a delegated act. For electronics and ICT equipment, that act does not yet exist; the ESPR work plan mentions the period from 2027 as a direction, but a firm date is not fixed anywhere. What is already fixed, however, is the system behind it: market surveillance via Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, and in the ESPR itself a provision intended to prevent circumvention or deterioration of requirements (Article 40).

Ensure that a passport exists before it becomes mandatory.

Once the delegated act for a product group is published, there is a moment at which the passport must be present when the product is placed on the market. For a company of 10 to 100 employees, that means above all: knowing in time which data must be collected, and from whom. A company that only starts this after the obligation already applies is playing catch-up. The question who is responsible for the product passport of electronics? is a good starting point in this regard, because that responsibility can usually be determined clearly even before the obligation takes effect.

Know which role you play in the supply chain.

The obligations differ by role: manufacturer, importer, distributor or brand owner. A company that has electronics made and sells them under its own name has a different position than a party that only resells. That distinction is not always straightforward — a wholesaler that repackages or relabels products can easily end up in a different role than expected. The page Am I an importer or manufacturer according to the ESPR? goes into further detail.

Be able to demonstrate where the data comes from.

Market surveillance under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 works with the possibility that a supervisory authority requests documentation. For a company, that means: data on materials, origin and composition must not only exist, but also be traceable to the right party in the supply chain. A company that keeps no records itself and relies entirely on a supplier outside the EU can end up without substantiation during an inspection. See also the page on the situation in which your manufacturer is located outside the European Union..

Do not allow circumvention of requirements to arise.

Article 40 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is aimed at preventing products from being modified, split up or otherwise positioned to avoid requirements, or performances deteriorating over time. For a medium-sized company, this is relevant when making decisions that at first glance seem purely commercial: dividing a product line slightly differently, launching a variant under a different name. Such choices can inadvertently touch on what this provision is intended to prevent.

Where things go wrong in practice

Wait until the obligation officially comes into force. Because the date for electronics is not yet fixed, some companies defer all preparation. Data on materials and origin are then not structured recorded at the moment it is needed, and reconstructing it afterwards is more difficult than keeping it up to date during production.

Incorrect assumption about who is responsible. An importer sometimes assumes that the manufacturer in the country of origin will handle the passport, while that party has no visibility into it and no interest in it either. With private label or own-brand products, this confusion is a recurring problem — see selling under your own brand..

Data scattered across multiple suppliers. In the case of assembled electronics (for example, white goods with purchased electronic modules), data comes from different parties. Without agreement on who supplies and maintains which part, a passport with gaps results, or no passport at all because no one feels responsible for the whole.

Distinction between distributor and responsible party not clearly drawn. A trader who resells products without modifying them holds a different position than a party that changes packaging, labelling or documentation. Those who do not know this distinction sometimes unintentionally assume obligations, or conversely fail to do what fits their own role. The page on obligations of a distributor or trader makes that distinction concrete.

Procurement within the EU with incorrect assumption about "already arranged". Companies that purchase electronics in another EU country and resell them here sometimes assume that the product passport is then automatically correct because it is already "in the EU". Whether and how that responsibility shifts upon resale is something to assess per situation; see product resold within the EU.

What you can document

• An overview of one's own role in the chain (manufacturer, importer, distributor or brand owner) per product line, including the reasoning for why that role is determined that way.
• Agreements with suppliers on which data they provide, in which format and with which update frequency, especially when the manufacturer is located outside the EU.
• An internal responsible person or function serving as a point of contact for questions about compliance and documentation — relevant to the question who signs off on conformity.
• Documentation on material composition and origin per product group, even if there is no legal obligation yet, so that there is no backlog when the delegated act is published.
• A documented procedure for what happens in case of private label procurement, including who checks which data — see also obligations under private label.
• A record of who has been held liable if it subsequently emerges that data in a passport was incorrect, and how that is contractually covered — review for this liability for incorrect data.
• An overview of existing WEEE registrations and whether they align with the product groups that the company operates, to be found via WEEE registration.