The law
What is the ESPR, the EU ecodesign regulation?
The ESPR is the EU law that creates the digital product passport. It is in force, and by itself it requires a passport for no product.
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) creates the digital product passport, and it has been in force since 18 July 2024. By itself it creates that duty for no product, because it names no product group and sets no date.
If you treat the ESPR as your deadline, you buy a passport system years before any rule reaches your product. A passport duty reaches your product only after the European Commission adopts a separate rule for your product group. The Commission has adopted no such rule for any group, as at 14 August 2026.
The regulation entered into force on 18 July 2024
| Item | Status and date |
|---|---|
| Number | Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 |
| Official Journal text | eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1781/oj |
| Adopted | 13 June 2024 |
| Published in the Official Journal | 28 June 2024 |
| In force | 18 July 2024, the twentieth day after publication |
| Passport duty for a product group | None adopted, as at 14 August 2026 |
The ESPR is not the only EU law that creates a passport. The battery regulation carries the only passport duty that binds a product today. See what law creates the digital product passport.
What the ESPR does: it sets the general rules for ecodesign and the passport
The regulation sets how ecodesign requirements work across product groups. It also sets the rules for the passport itself.
The Commission covers each product group by a delegated act. That act names the group, lists the data, and sets the date. See what is a delegated act.
What the ESPR does not do: it names no product group and no date
The regulation names no product group for a passport, and it sets no date for one.
So a supplier who says that the ESPR requires a passport from 2027 is wrong about the instrument. The published sector years are the years the Commission expects to adopt each delegated act. They are not compliance dates. How to read the timeline does the arithmetic, and which products need a passport lists each group.
One passport duty binds today, and it does not come from the ESPR. Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 sets the date of 18 February 2027. 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
See batteries and the battery regulation.
Article 1(2): the products the regulation does not reach
Article 1(2) lists what the ESPR does not cover:
- food and feed
- medicinal products and veterinary medicinal products
- living plants, animals and micro-organisms
- products of human origin
- products of plants and animals that relate directly to their future reproduction
Vehicles are excluded only for the product aspects that other EU acts already regulate.
Food includes drink. Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 defines food for the ESPR. A carton of Marlborough sauvignon blanc is food, so the regulation does not reach it.
The exclusion covers the product, not the company. See ESPR exclusions and food and feed are excluded.
Article 9: a passport is a condition of market access
Article 9(1) is the trigger. A covered product may be placed on the market or put into service only if a passport is available.
Read the word "covered". A product is covered when the delegated act for its group says so. Until then Article 9 asks nothing of you. See ESPR Article 9.
Articles 10 and 11: a passport needs a data carrier and a unique identifier
Articles 10 and 11 carry the technical requirements. They reach a product once a delegated act covers its group.
| Provision | What it requires |
|---|---|
| Article 10(1)(a) | The data carrier connects to a persistent unique product identifier |
| Article 10(1)(b) | The data carrier is physically present on the product, its packaging or its documentation |
| Article 10(1)(c) | The identifiers follow the ISO/IEC 15459 series, or equivalent standards, until harmonised standard references are published |
| Article 10(1)(f) | The passport sits at model, batch or item level, as the delegated act specifies |
| Article 10(3) | A dealer or an online marketplace gets a digital copy of the carrier, free of charge, within five working days of a request |
| Article 10(4) and Article 11(c) | The operator keeps a back-up copy with a passport service provider |
Article 10 also sets where the passport is stored. The regulation requires it to be "stored by the economic operator responsible for its creation or by digital product passport service providers".
The ESPR names no vendor scheme. A search of the full regulation returns no hit for GS1, for Digital Link, for IEC 61406 or for a digital object identifier. Annex III names the ISO/IEC 15459 series. It names parts 1 to 6 of that series. See identifier schemes.
Article 4: the Commission covers each group, and you get time to prepare
Article 4 gives the Commission the power to adopt a delegated act for a product group. That act, not the ESPR, sets your date.
Article 4(4) carries the transition rule:
The date of application of a delegated act shall not be earlier than 18 months from its entry into force ...
The same paragraph allows an earlier date in duly justified cases, and for a partial repeal or amendment. So treat that period as the usual case, not as a guarantee.
The Parliament and the Council may object before the transition period starts. Their scrutiny period is two months. They can extend it by two more months. Article 72(6) sets this rule.
Three articles that reach you once your group is covered
| Article | What it does |
|---|---|
| Article 13 | The Commission runs a registry. The operator uploads the identifiers to it. |
| Article 14 | A public web portal lets people search and compare passport data. |
| Article 15 | Customs receives the registration identifier for a covered product. |
The registry is operational. Two dates belong to it, and both are correct.
| Date | What it is |
|---|---|
| 19 July 2026 | The statutory deadline in Article 13(1) |
| 20 July 2026 | The launch, with a testing environment |
The upload duty reaches no operator yet, because no delegated act applies. A registration identifier is not proof of compliance, and Article 13(5) says so. See the EU registry.
Article 79: the old ecodesign directive is not fully repealed
The ESPR repeals Directive 2009/125/EC, the earlier ecodesign directive. Article 79 keeps part of that directive in force for transitional purposes.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Repealed | Directive 2009/125/EC |
| Kept for transitional purposes | Articles 1, 2, 8(2), 11, 14, 15, 18 and 19 |
| Also kept | Annexes I, II, IV, V and VII |
So a statement that the old directive lost all effect in July 2024 is wrong. Check your product before you assume that only the ESPR reaches it. See where the passport idea came from for the older directive and the policy behind it.
Two ESPR duties do not need a delegated act
The passport is not the full regulation. Two articles reach unsold consumer products directly.
- Article 25(1) bans the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear. Annex VII lists the product codes.
- Article 24(1) requires an annual public disclosure of the unsold consumer products a company discards.
Neither article is a passport duty. This page gives no start date for either one. Ask your legal adviser about the two dates before you plan any work.
Food and drink are outside the ESPR, and no ESPR passport duty reaches your product yet
If you sell food or drink, the ESPR does not reach your product. Article 1(2) puts it outside.
If you sell an e-bike battery, your date is 18 February 2027. It comes from the battery regulation, not from the ESPR.
If you sell a merino jumper, furniture or steel, no ESPR duty reaches you today. Monitor for the delegated act for your group. The year published for your sector is the year the Commission plans to adopt the rule. See what this means for New Zealand exporters.