As you delve into the digital product passport, sooner or later you will encounter the term 'manufacturer': the party that supplies the data for the passport and is responsible for its accuracy. This is not automatically the producer. If the product is made outside the EU, in practice that responsibility often shifts to the importer who first places the product on the European market.
The regulation itself does not use the term 'manufacturer' as a fixed legal title for one party. It works with a system of roles — manufacturer, authorized representative, importer, distributor — and assigns for each obligation who is accountable. We use 'manufacturer' on elektropas.com as a practical term for the party that supplies us with the source data we use to compile the passport. Who that is in your case depends on your position in the supply chain.
The manufacturer is the starting point
For electronics and ICT equipment, the manufacturer is in principle the party that best knows the technical information: materials, origin of components, repair data, energy consumption. The regulation therefore places the core obligation on the manufacturer, regardless of whether it is established in the EU or elsewhere.
The practical problem arises once the manufacturer is outside the EU and has no direct party within the Union acting on its behalf. For supervisory authorities, it is then difficult to hold someone accountable. That is why the system includes the role of authorized representative: a party within the EU that the manufacturer has explicitly designated to fulfil certain obligations.
Why the importer often comes into play
If no authorized representative has been designated, the role in practice often falls to the importer: the party that first places the product on the market in the European Union. For an SME that directly purchases equipment from a manufacturer outside the EU — think of an installation company that itself imports consignments of electronics — this can become relevant. It is then up to the importer to verify that the required information is available and, where necessary, to supplement it or have it supplemented.
The distributor, that is, the party that brings the product further into trade without importing it itself, generally has a lighter, controlling role: verify that the passport and the associated QR code are present, not to compile the content itself. For an office manager who purchases equipment from a Dutch wholesaler, there is usually no separate data supply obligation — that lies further down the chain. Determining exactly where you stand is different for each product group and in each situation; in a few questions you can see which role fits your situation provides an initial indication of this.
What this means for your conversation with your suppliers
Because the division of roles depends on where you stand in the supply chain, it is useful to ask your own suppliers which role each of them fulfils: is the manufacturer established in the EU, has an authorized representative been designated, and who will supply the data for the passport? You will conduct that conversation best before the obligation for your product category takes effect, not after. The exact date for this is not yet set for electronics and ICT; the European Commission is working this out step by step per subcategory, with delegated legislation expected at the earliest from 2027.
Interface with existing product rules
The division of roles between manufacturer, authorised representative, importer and distributor is not new. It already exists in the broader European product safety legislation, including around CE marking. The digital product passport builds on this instead of introducing a completely new system. For companies that already work with CE obligations, this is a reassuring constant: the question 'who is responsible for what' is largely already familiar territory, only an additional data obligation comes on top.
Supervision of correct role fulfilment
National supervisory authorities and, at EU level, the relevant market surveillance authorities check during inspections, among other things, whether the correct party has provided the correct data and whether that data is traceable to the source. How that supervision will look exactly for electronics and ICT will become clearer once the delegated legislation per sub-category has been published. More on how we collect and maintain data traceability, you can read on the page on how we trace data back to the source.
For your own situation — which role you fulfil, and which obligations go with it — a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority is the right party to assess that. If you want to get an impression first of where you roughly stand, you can do the free quick-scan or browse through the knowledge base with explanations per subject. Frequently asked questions about roles and responsibilities are also clearly compiled on the frequently asked questions page.