The law
What a delegated act is, and why it sets your date
A delegated act is the rule the European Commission writes for one product group. It sets the date a passport duty starts.
A delegated act is the rule that creates the passport duty for one product group. The European Commission adopts it, and the duty usually starts at least 18 months after the act enters into force.
The act adds detail to the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). It names the product group, and it sets the date of application. That date is later than the year a supplier probably quoted to you.
As at 14 August 2026 the Commission has adopted no delegated act for any product group. So no ESPR passport duty reaches any product today. If you treat a published year as your deadline, you will buy a passport system about two years early.
The Commission writes the act, and Parliament and Council can only object
ESPR has been in force since July 2024. By itself it makes no product need a passport. Article 4 gives the Commission the power to adopt a delegated act for one product group at a time. See what is the ESPR.
The word delegated describes where the power comes from. ESPR gives the power, and the Commission uses it.
The European Parliament and the Council do not vote a delegated act into law. They receive the act after the Commission adopts it. They then get a scrutiny period, and either institution may object inside that period. If neither one objects, the Official Journal publishes the act. The act then enters into force.
Article 9 of ESPR makes a passport a condition of market access. That condition reaches only a product group that a delegated act covers. See ESPR Article 9 and the legal basis.
Adoption is not your date, and four more steps follow it
Warning: read the adoption row as a plan. The rows below it come from articles that are in force.
| Step | What happens | How long | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preparation | The Commission prepares the act. For iron and steel it ran two consultations. | No fixed period | Under way |
| Adoption | The Commission adopts the act. The published year marks this step. | A single date | Indicative plan |
| Scrutiny | Parliament and Council may object | Two months, extendable by two more | ESPR Article 72(6), in force |
| Entry into force | The Official Journal publishes the act | The usual interval is twenty days | Usual practice |
| Transition | Companies prepare | Usually 18 months or more | ESPR Article 4(4), in force |
| Application | The duty starts. This is your date. | Set by the act itself | None adopted |
Only the last row binds you.
Article 4(4) sets the transition, and it permits an earlier date
Article 4(4) of ESPR reads:
The date of application of a delegated act shall not be earlier than 18 months from its entry into force, except in duly justified cases for the whole act or for some specific requirements, or except in cases of partial repeal or amendment of delegated acts, where an earlier date of application may be set.
Read the exception clause. The period of 18 months is the usual minimum, and the Commission can set an earlier date in three cases:
- a duly justified case for the full act
- a duly justified case for some specific requirements
- a partial repeal or amendment of an earlier delegated act
So do not plan on 18 months alone. Read the date of application in the act itself, on the day the act appears.
The earliest ESPR passport is a steel passport, about mid 2028
The Commission plans the iron and steel act before any other. Its two consultations on that act closed in August 2026, and adoption is planned for the fourth quarter of the same year.
| Step | Date or period | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Two consultations closed | 12 August 2026 | Happened |
| Adoption | Q4 2026 | Indicative Commission plan |
| Scrutiny | Up to four months | ESPR Article 72(6), in force |
| Entry into force | Twenty days after publication | Usual practice |
| Transition | At least 18 months | ESPR Article 4(4), in force |
| A steel passport applies | About mid 2028 | Calculated, earliest possible |
About mid 2028 is the earliest date any ESPR passport can apply, and it belongs to steel. Every later group follows the same arithmetic. See iron and steel for the sector, and how to read the timeline for each other group.
A published year quoted as a deadline costs you about two years
Assume you sell steel milk vats to an importer in the Netherlands. A supplier tells you that your deadline is 2026, because the Commission plan shows that year.
That year is the year the Commission expects to write the rule. If you believe it, you pay for a passport system about two years early. You then pay to run it through years in which no law asks for it.
No source gives the price of that mistake. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) says the work needs investment in information technology and in data management. MFAT gives no figure, and no passport pilot has published one. Read the MFAT market report.
What this site searched, and what came back, is listed in what this site does not know.
A second cost is easier to miss. Until the act exists, nobody can tell you which data it demands. A system built to a guess can hold the wrong fields.
A delegated act is not an implementing act, and not a standard
People confuse three instruments, but only one of them creates your duty.
- A delegated act creates the duty for a product group, and sets its date.
- An implementing act sets uniform conditions for applying a law that exists.
- A harmonised standard is a voluntary technical document.
Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736 is an implementing act. It has been in force since 15 July 2026. It cites six European standards for the passport, and it creates no duty for any product group.
| Standard | Subject |
|---|---|
| EN 18216 | Data exchange protocols |
| EN 18219 | Unique identifiers |
| EN 18220 | Data carriers |
| EN 18221 | Data storage, archiving, and persistence |
| EN 18222 | Application programming interfaces for product passport lifecycle management and searchability |
| EN 18223 | System interoperability |
The set has a gap in the numbering. There is no EN 18217 and no EN 18218. A range from the lowest number to the highest names two documents that do not exist. See the six standards and what is an implementing act.
Citation does not make a standard mandatory. A product built to a cited standard gets a presumption of conformity with the ESPR passport requirements in Articles 10 and 11. See what is a harmonised standard.
Some delegated acts do not name a product group
One planned act covers passport service providers. A service provider stores the passport data for the operator that places the product on the market.
Two sources give different adoption dates for that act.
| Source | Adoption date it gives |
|---|---|
| A Commission timeline slide, June 2026 | First quarter of 2027 |
| GS1, in a webinar of 5 May 2026 | End of 2026 |
This site gives no date for that act, because the two sources disagree. Neither date belongs to an adopted act. See what a passport service provider does.
What to do while no act covers your product
- Monitor for the act itself. Do not plan against the published year.
- Ask which instrument sets any date that a supplier gives you.
- Read the act on the day it appears. Check its date of application first.
- Ask your European importer which data it needs, and when.
- Find out where your product data lives, and who owns it.
One passport duty needs no delegated act. It comes from the battery regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, which is in force. It covers three kinds of battery:
- 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
That duty applies from 18 February 2027. See batteries.
For every other product, the delegated act is the instrument to monitor. Which products need a passport, and when lists each group and its planned adoption year.