What a distributor or a retailer must do for a passport

A distributor that only resells does not create the digital product passport, under Article 9(1) of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The duty falls on the operator that places the product on the market. Placing on the market is the first making available.

Get that distinction wrong in one direction and you buy a passport system you do not need. Get it wrong in the other direction and you import a product yourself, without the documents an importer must hold. Your stock then stays in a warehouse.

The role follows the act, not the job title

European product law attaches a duty to an act.

Consider a merino jumper made in Ashburton. A shop in Lyon buys it from a French wholesaler and sells it to a customer. The shop makes the jumper available. An earlier company brought the jumper into the Union and placed it on the market.

The glossary defines placing on the market. The page who is the economic operator applies the test to a New Zealand supplier.

Article 9 attaches the passport to the first act, not to the resale

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) creates the passport. Article 9(1) provides that a covered product may be placed on the market or put into service only if a passport is available.

Article 9 names the act that carries the duty. It does not name a later resale. So a distributor that only resells does not trigger the condition a second time for the same product. Read ESPR Article 9 for the full condition.

No product group is covered yet, so Article 9 stops nothing today

ESPR is in force. It creates no passport duty for any specific product.

The duty arrives only through a delegated act for one product group. As at 14 August 2026 the European Commission has adopted no such act for any group. See what is a delegated act.

Warning: the published sector years are the years the Commission expects to adopt each act. They are not compliance dates. Read how to read the timeline before you plan a date. See which products need a passport, and when for each group.

A distributor that imports the product is the importer

This is the common mistake, and it is the reason to read this page.

The battery regulation defines an importer. The definition is "any natural or legal person established within the Union who places on the market a battery from a third country". It defines placing on the market as "the first making available of a battery on the Union market".

A retailer in Rotterdam buys an e-bike battery direct from a manufacturer in Christchurch. That retailer brings the battery into the Union first. It is the importer for that battery, and it holds the importer's duties.

One company can hold both roles at the same time.

• It is a distributor for the e-bike batteries it buys from a wholesaler in the Union.
• It is the importer for the e-bike batteries it buys direct from New Zealand.

The page importer obligations sets out what the importer must verify before the first sale.

The battery passport names the operator that places the battery on the market

One passport duty already has a fixed date. ESPR does not create it. Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, the battery regulation, creates it. That regulation is in force. The passport duty applies from 18 February 2027. Article 77(1) covers three categories, and no others:

• each light means of transport (LMT) battery, such as an e-bike battery
• each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kilowatt hours
• each electric vehicle battery

Warning: do not read this as a rule for large batteries. An LMT battery carries no size threshold, so a small e-bike battery is covered. The Commission web page on digital product passports writes "certain types of batteries, including", and that list is open. See batteries.

Article 77(4) names the economic operator that places the battery on the market. That operator must keep the passport information accurate, complete and up to date. It may authorise another operator in writing to act on its behalf. The authorisation does not move the responsibility.

So a shop that resells a covered battery bought inside the Union does not hold that duty. A shop that imports the same battery does.

No source read here puts an ESPR duty on a distributor, and that is not an exemption

This site reports what its sources support. It found few sources on distributors, and it does not guess.

This site's sources record no ESPR article that sets a duty on a distributor, so this page does not list one. The battery regulation's duties on a distributor are not in the sources either. So the verification steps that a distributor must take before a sale are unknown here.

Do not read that absence as an exemption. It means the answer is not published on this page. The market surveillance and customs page describes who checks a product at the border and in a shop.

One duty a distributor does hold: name your supplier within one month

This duty is not passport law. It reaches a distributor directly, and it is worth knowing.

Directive (EU) 2024/2853 is the EU product liability directive. It is in force, and it replaces an earlier directive. It applies to a product placed on the market or put into service after the transposition date. Member States must transpose it by 9 December 2026.

Article 8(3) makes each distributor liable for a defective product where no Union operator can be identified. The distributor must then name an operator, or the distributor that supplied it. It has one month to do so.

In practice that is a records duty. A retailer that cannot say who supplied a defective e-bike battery can be held liable itself. Keep the supplier name and the batch number for every consignment.

The rules this page uses, and their status

Ask each EU customer if it imports your product direct

Your EU customer's role decides who holds the duty, and your customer may not know its own role. A buyer that calls itself a distributor is the importer for anything it brings in from New Zealand.

1. Ask each EU customer if it imports your product direct.
2. Record the name of the operator that places your product on the market.
3. Give a direct buyer the documents that an importer must hold.
4. Agree in writing who supplies, approves and updates each item.

The page what a non-EU exporter must supply lists the documents. The page agreeing data duties covers the written agreement.