Does the ESPR also apply to my business?
The ESPR, in full the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, is the European framework regulation for more sustainable products. The digital product passport that is central to this site is one of the instruments that stems from this regulation, but the ESPR itself goes further: it also regulates requirements on repairability, durability, recyclability and information about the environmental impact of a product. Whether the ESPR will apply to your business depends on the product group you manufacture or import, and on the delegated act that the European Commission still has to adopt for that purpose.
For electronics and ICT equipment, that work is still ongoing. The Commission is elaborating the ESPR per product group in separate delegated acts, with a work plan running until 2030. For most categories within electronics and ICT, those acts are expected from 2027 onwards. As long as there is no delegated act for your specific product group, the concrete requirements do not yet apply, even though the framework regulation itself is already in force.
What the ESPR precisely regulates
The ESPR is a framework, not a list of direct obligations for each product. The regulation empowers the Commission to establish requirements per product group on matters such as lifespan, repairability, the presence of certain substances, energy and material use, and the information that must be available about these. The digital product passport is the way in which that information is made accessible, via a QR code or comparable data carrier on or with the product.
Furthermore, the ESPR contains a number of general provisions that do not need to be elaborated per product group, such as the prohibition on the destruction of unsold consumer goods for certain businesses. Whether such a general provision applies to your business is separate from the question of whether a delegated act has already been adopted for your product group.
How the ESPR relates to the digital product passport
Anyone who has already looked into the digital product passport has in fact already become acquainted with part of the ESPR. The passport is the implementing instrument; the ESPR is the legal basis on which that instrument rests. For electronics and ICT, this means that the question "does the product passport apply to me" and the question "does the ESPR apply to me" largely follow the same product groups and the same timeline, but do not completely coincide. A delegated act could, for example, contain requirements on repairability without an immediate passport obligation, or vice versa.
For businesses placing electronics or ICT equipment on the European market, it is therefore useful to keep both tracks in view: the passport as a data carrier, and the underlying ecodesign requirements as the substantive standards to which the product must comply. In the knowledge base sorted per situation this distinction is explained further per product group, as soon as the delegated acts are known.
For whom the ESPR does and does not apply
The ESPR is basically aimed at manufacturers, importers and sometimes distributors placing products within the scope of the regulation on the EU market. For electronics and ICT, that scope is intended to be broad, but only becomes concrete once a product group has been worked out. For example, a company that imports household appliances or ICT hardware potentially falls under the regulation once the corresponding delegated act has been published; a company that provides only services related to that equipment, without being a producer or importer itself, is in a different position. Who exactly is designated as a supplier in the chain has been described earlier on this platform and remains a relevant question for the ESPR as well.
Because the delegated acts have not yet been established for every product group, it is currently not possible to say in general terms whether or not the ESPR applies to a particular company. That will become clear for each product group once the Commission publishes the act.
What you can do now
Even without the date and exact requirements being fixed yet, it is worthwhile to map out now which product groups your company places on the market, and what data you already collect about them from the manufacturer or supplier. This inventory is the same one needed for the digital product passport, and saves time once a delegated act for your product group appears. With get an initial indication with a few questions where your company stands in relation to the ESPR and the passport, this can be a starting point.
For the question of how elektropas.com compiles this information and keeps it current, more can be read on the page about how we collect and keep data current. For your own situation, and for the question of whether and when specific obligations will apply, consultation of the official EUR-Lex text or a lawyer remains the point of reference.
Would you like to know how this could work out for your products once the rules become concrete? Do the free quick-scan or browse the most frequently asked questions about the product passport and the underlying rules to see which topics are relevant for your company.