ESPR will reach almost every physical product sold in the EU, and once your product group requires a Digital Product Passport, products without one can’t be sold there. With rules generally applying about 18 months after adoption, here’s what you need to know about this critical EU regulation.
ESPR Background
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is the EU law that will set sustainability rules and targets for nearly every physical product sold in the EU. It was adopted on June 14, 2024, and published in the Official Journal on June 28, 2024. It entered into force on July 18, 2024.
ESPR is a regulation, meaning it applies directly in every Member State without any interpretation on a national level. It is also a framework, so it does not directly tell brands what each individual product must achieve. Individual product rules are introduced later via delegated acts that the Commission adopts one product group at a time.
Who Is Affected by ESPR?
ESPR places duties on “economic operators,” defined as:
Manufacturers
Authorized representatives
Importers
Distributors
Dealers
Fulfilment service providers
Under Article 2, a “manufacturer” includes a brand that has a product designed or made by someone else and sells it under its own name or trademark. As such, most consumer product brands that outsource production will therefore be treated as manufacturers.
ESPR Product Exemptions
A few categories are not covered under ESPR:
Food
Feed
Human and veterinary medicines
Living plants
Animals and micro-organisms
Products of human origin
Products of plants and animals relating directly to their future reproduction
Products made solely for defense or national security
Vehicles are excluded only for components that are already regulated under type-approval rules.
What ESPR Requires
ESPR sets two types of obligations: Rules on unsold goods apply now, while rules on product design and information apply once the Commission adopts delegated acts by product group.
Rules on Unsold Goods
Large companies that discard unsold consumer products of any kind must publish the number and weight of products discarded in each category. These disclosures must be published once per year and on an easy to find page of their website. The disclosure must include:
The reason the products were discarded
How the products were handled
What the company is doing to prevent it
The requirement ran from the first full financial year after July 18, 2024, and supporting records must be kept for five years.
Large companies are also banned from destroying unsold apparel, clothing accessories, and footwear. Destruction is defined as intentionally damaging a product or discarding it as waste except in limited circumstances where the product is to be reused, refurbished, or manufactured.
Rules Set by Delegated Acts
Each delegated act will set performance and information requirements for a product group. Those requirements address:
Durability
Reliability
Reusability
Upgradability
Repairability
Maintenance and refurbishment
Substances of concern
Energy and water use
Resource use
Recycled content
Remanufacturing
Recyclability
Material recovery
Carbon and environmental footprint
Expected waste
Information requirements can include a repairability or durability score, a carbon or environmental footprint, care and repair instructions, and end of life handling information. At minimum, every product-specific delegated act must include Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements and information on substances of concern. Some product groups will also get a label.
Delegated acts also name the conformity assessment route and may add documentation, reporting, and marking requirements.
ESPR Timeline
| Dates Set in Law | Commission Target Years (Indicative) |
|---|---|
|
2024
ESPR enters into force; the old Ecodesign Directive is repealed, with transition periods
July 18, 2024 · Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Art. 79 and 80
FY
Large companies begin annual disclosure of discarded unsold consumer products
First full financial year after July 18, 2024 · Art. 24(1)
2026
Commission adopts rules on destruction derogations and the disclosure format
February 9, 2026 · Delegated Reg. (EU) 2026/296; Implementing Reg. (EU) 2026/2
2026
Ban on destroying unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear applies to large companies
July 19, 2026 · Art. 25(1)
2026
Transition ends for older Ecodesign Directive rules on products such as computers, vacuum cleaners and heaters
December 31, 2026 · Art. 79(1)(a)(i)
2030
Disclosure duty and destruction ban extend to medium-sized enterprises
July 19, 2030 · Art. 24(1) and 25(1)
|
2025
Commission adopts the first ESPR working plan
April 16, 2025 · COM(2025) 187 final
2026
Delegated act for iron and steel
Target adoption year
2027
Delegated acts for textiles and apparel, tyres and aluminium, plus horizontal repairability rules
Target adoption year
2027
Commission study on whether to regulate footwear under ESPR
By end of 2027
2028
Delegated act for furniture, and a mid-term review of the working plan
Target adoption year
2029
Delegated act for mattresses, plus horizontal rules on recycled content and recyclability of electrical and electronic equipment
Target adoption year
|
Target years come from the Commission's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025 to 2030, COM(2025) 187 final. They are planned adoption years, not compliance deadlines. Product rules generally apply no earlier than 18 months after each delegated act enters into force (Art. 4(4)).
Digital Product Passport
The DPP is a digital record of a product's sustainability, compliance and traceability information, reached by scanning a data carrier such as a QR code on the product, its packaging or its documentation. It is created in ESPR Articles 9 to 15 and Annex III rather than as part of a separate law.
The DPP is how most ESPR information requirements reach consumers, repairers, recyclers, customs offices, and market surveillance authorities.
Once a delegated act requires a passport for a product group, products in that group can only be placed on the EU market with an available, accurate, complete, and up-to-date DPP.
What Products Are Affected by DPP?
Passports are required for products covered by delegated acts that call for them. DPPs are not required until the delegated act for your product group is adopted and applies.
The main duties fall on the economic operator that places the product on the EU market or puts it into service. That is usually the brand selling into the EU, or the product’s EU importer. The operator must:
Make the DPP available
Keep a backup copy with a DPP service provider
Upload identifiers to the EU registry
Give dealers and online marketplaces a digital copy of the data carrier
Each delegated act determines who can create or update a DPP and who can see which data.
What’s Required for a DPP
The baseline requirements for every DPP are:
It must be linked through a data carrier to a persistent unique product identifier, and the carrier must be physically on the product, its packaging or its accompanying documentation.
The data must use open, interoperable, machine-readable formats with no vendor lock-in.
Customer personal data cannot be stored in the passport without the customer's explicit consent.
It must be stored by the operator that created it or by a passport service provider and must stay available even if that operator goes insolvent or leaves the EU market.
The operator placing the product on the market must keep a backup copy with a passport service provider.
Data must be authenticated, reliable and secure, and only actors with the right access rights can change it.
How Snaplinc Can Help
ESPR's unsold goods rules already apply, and passport requirements will reach product groups one delegated act at a time over the next few years. For most brands the hardest part is not the software. It is collecting accurate product and supplier data from factories that have never been asked for it, usually without a new hire dedicated to the work.
Snaplinc works alongside your team to get that data ready and keep the rollout moving. We can help you:
Confirm which ESPR and DPP obligations apply to your products and what each one requires.
Design a data structure for your passport and a plan for collecting the data.
Prepare training materials for your suppliers, and follow up with factories until information requests are complete.
Choose a DPP software vendor and the modules that fit your business.
Plan the rollout, starting with a pilot at one to three factories before onboarding the rest.
Act as your implementation team between your software provider and your factories for 12 months or more, including answering factories' technical questions as they fill in your passport data.
If your products are in one of the Commission's priority groups, supplier data work takes time, and starting before your delegated act is adopted gives you the most room to get it right. Schedule a consultation with our team to talk through where your products stand.