The law
What happens if you do not comply with a passport rule
A covered product without a passport cannot go on the EU market, and this site cannot tell you what penalties member states set.
The first consequence of a missing digital product passport is lost market access. A covered product without a passport cannot lawfully go on the European Union (EU) market.
Today that consequence reaches no product under the EU ecodesign regulation, because no product group is covered yet. One passport duty is already law. It applies from 18 February 2027 to three battery categories.
Two errors follow if you ignore this page. You buy a compliance system for a rule that binds nothing. Or you ship a covered battery in 2027 without the passport data, and your EU importer cannot place it on the market.
Nothing has been enforced under the ecodesign regulation
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is the EU law that creates the passport. It came into force on 18 July 2024.
ESPR creates no passport duty for any named product. The duty arrives only through a rule for one product group, called a delegated act. The European Commission has adopted no such rule for any group, as at 14 August 2026. See what is a delegated act.
So no authority can act against a passport failure under ESPR, because there is no covered product.
The published sector years are adoption years for those rules. Treat one as an enforcement date and you prepare for the wrong year. See how to read the timeline.
Market access stops before any penalty starts
Article 9(1) of ESPR makes the passport a condition of market access. A covered product may be placed on the market or put into service only if a passport is available.
A merino jumper in a covered product group, with no passport, may not go on the EU market at all.
That condition matters to you more than a penalty. EU law puts the duty on the operator that places the product on the market, which is usually your importer. Lost market access stops the container you have already paid to send. See ESPR Article 9.
Customs check the border, and authorities check the market
Two different bodies act, at two different points.
Article 15 of ESPR covers customs controls for the passport. Customs must receive the registration identifier. That article applies only once the registry is operational, and only to a product that a delegated act covers. The registry became operational in July 2026. No delegated act covers any product group, so Article 15 reaches no product today. See the EU registry.
Warning: a registration identifier is not a compliance certificate. Article 13(5) of ESPR states that the registry's communication "shall not be deemed to be proof of compliance with this Regulation or other Union law". A supplier who sells you a registration has not sold you compliance.
Warning: this site has not read the EU market surveillance rules. It states nothing about the powers those authorities hold. See market surveillance and customs.
Market surveillance authorities work inside the market instead. The battery regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, names them as readers of the passport. Article 77(2) gives an authority more data than it gives the public. So an authority sees fields your customer never sees.
| Reader | Data in Annex XIII |
|---|---|
| The general public | Point 1 |
| Notified bodies, market surveillance authorities and the Commission | Points 2 and 3 |
| Any person with a legitimate interest | Points 2 and 4 |
The last two groups both read point 2. See access tiers.
Your importer stops the shipment before any authority does
The battery regulation shows the practical sequence, because it carries the only firm date. Article 41(2) of that regulation tells an EU importer what to verify before it places a battery on the market:
(a) the EU declaration of conformity and technical documentation referred to in Annex VIII have been drawn up and that the relevant conformity assessment procedure referred to in Article 17 has been carried out by the manufacturer; (b) the battery bears the CE marking referred to in Article 19, and is marked and labelled in accordance with Article 13
Take an e-bike battery built in Christchurch and sold to an importer in Rotterdam. If one item on that list is missing, the importer must not place the battery on the market. Your stock then stays in a warehouse in the Netherlands.
No inspection is needed for that outcome. Your customer applies the rule to itself, and the shipment stops. See what a non-EU exporter must supply.
Your importer holds the legal duty, and you carry the risk in the supply agreement
Article 77(4) of the battery regulation puts the passport duty on the economic operator that places the battery on the market. Article 3(1) defines an importer as a person established within the Union who places a battery from a third country on the market.
If you have no EU establishment, you are not that operator, and your EU importer is. See who is the economic operator.
Article 77(4) lets that importer authorise another operator in writing to act on its behalf. The authorisation is not a transfer of responsibility.
So the importer gives you the work, and it keeps the duty. It asks you for the documents, and for a promise in the supply agreement. That agreement is where you carry the risk. See how to agree data duties.
One qualification belongs here. A white paper of 31 March 2026 states that a non-EU manufacturer stays a duty-holder whatever its establishment. The PARSEC, CIRPASS-2 and BORDERLINK projects wrote it. That paper binds nobody. Treat it as a position your customer may take in a contract.
Conformity to the six standards does not answer Article 9
Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736 cites six passport standards. The Decision gives a presumption of conformity under ESPR Article 41(2). That presumption covers Articles 10 and 11 of ESPR. A standard stays voluntary.
The Decision does not mention Article 9 at all. So a product built to those standards still needs a passport before it goes on the market. See presumption of conformity.
What this site cannot tell you about penalties
Warning: do not accept a figure for an EU fine from a supplier without a primary source. Ask which article sets it, and in which member state.
This site does not know what penalties EU member states set for a passport failure. It does not know how those penalties differ between member states. It does not know what any authority may seize, withdraw or order.
It has no enforcement record to report. Nothing has been enforced under ESPR, because no delegated act applies to any product group.
The battery consequences apply from 18 February 2027, and the penalty is unknown
| Consequence | Where it is written | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A covered product may not be placed on the market | ESPR Article 9(1) | Waits for a delegated act |
| Customs receive the registration identifier | ESPR Article 15 | Waits for a delegated act |
| A registration identifier is not proof of compliance | ESPR Article 13(5) | Registry operational since July 2026 |
| An importer must not place a battery on the market without the documents | Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 41(2) | Regulation in force |
| Three battery categories need a passport | Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 77(1) | Applies from 18 February 2027 |
| Market surveillance authorities read restricted passport data | Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 77(2) | Applies from 18 February 2027 |
| The penalty for a breach | Not in this site's sources | Unknown |
Name the company that places your product on the EU market
Food and beverage products are outside ESPR scope. ESPR excludes them from the full regulation, so no ESPR passport duty reaches them. See food and feed are excluded.
The exclusion covers the product, and not the company. Your non-food products may still be in scope. Packaging is a separate product, and the food exclusion does not cover it. See packaging.
If you sell a battery, check the scope first. The duty covers three categories:
- 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
An LMT battery has no size threshold, so a small e-bike battery is covered. See batteries.
If you sell a jumper, a chair, a tyre or a steel product, no rule covers your group today. Monitor for the delegated act, and not for the adoption year.
Do two things, whatever you sell. Name the company that places your product on the EU market. Then read what your contract with that company already promises. See what this means for New Zealand exporters.