Does the ecodesign regulation differ per EU country for your company?
Short answer: no and yes. The ESPR is a European regulation, and a regulation applies automatically and uniformly in all Member States — unlike a directive, it does not need to be transposed into national legislation first. The core of the rules for the digital product passport is therefore the same everywhere in the EU. What can differ is the way countries supervise compliance, how they handle infringements, and what practical requirements they set for language and labelling.
For a company selling only in the Netherlands, this difference is mainly theoretical. For a company supplying via multiple EU countries, directly or through a distributor, it is something to keep an eye on, especially once the delegated acts for each product category are published.
Why the basis is the same everywhere
The ESPR (ecodesign regulation) establishes at EU level which product categories will receive a digital product passport and what data must be included. These substantive requirements are worked out per sub-category in delegated acts, adopted by the European Commission. Once such an act exists, it applies to all Member States at the same time, with identical content. There is therefore no separate Dutch or German version of the requirements for the passport itself. When the first acts for electronics and ICT will appear is not yet certain; the Commission's work plan mentions 2025-2030 as the period and expects the first acts from 2027 onwards, per sub-category.
What can differ per country
A regulation sets the standard, but often leaves implementation to the Member States. This affects three matters that are practical for a company.
First, the supervisory authority. Each Member State designates its own market surveillance authority to check that products comply with the requirements. In the Netherlands this task lies with different bodies than in, for example, Germany or France, and these bodies can have their own working methods and priorities.
Second, the penalties. The regulation provides the framework, but the level and form of fines for infringements is usually set nationally. This means that the same infringement in one country can lead to different handling than in another, without the underlying standard changing.
Third, language and the practical presentation of information. Consumer information must in practice often be available in the language of the country where the product is sold. If you sell the same device in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, that may mean the information behind the QR code must be available in multiple languages, even though the content of the passport itself is the same everywhere. the knowledge base with explanations per topic will map this kind of country-specific differences once the official texts provide clarity on them.
What this means for the digital product passport in practice
For most SMEs selling electronics or ICT equipment, this changes little about the data you must collect: those are set at European level and therefore the same everywhere. What changes is mainly the layer around it: who checks, in what language you provide information, and who you can turn to if there is uncertainty about a specific country. Companies active only in the Netherlands will in practice mainly deal with the Dutch supervisory authority; companies exporting within the EU would do well to check beforehand what is required locally, for example regarding language.
A QR data carrier pointing to the same passport can incidentally be used perfectly well in multiple countries; it is about the information behind it, not a separate passport per country. how we set up that data carrier and the underlying data shows how that works in practice.
What you can already prepare now
As long as the delegated acts for your product category have not yet been published, there is little that you can establish with certainty. However, it is useful to map out now which EU countries you sell in, which language versions of product information you already use there, and who within your organization liaises with suppliers about this data. This saves time once the requirements per product category become known. In the frequently asked questions about the digital product passport you will find answers to a number of related questions that frequently come up on this topic.
For the precise explanation of concepts and the current status of the delegated acts, we refer you to the official EU text and, for your own situation, to a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority. Would you first like to get a general picture of where your company stands? Take the free quick-scan in a few questions.