The DPP obligation sits with the economic operator that places the product on the EU market: the manufacturer for EU-made goods, the importer for goods from outside the EU, and any brand owner selling under its own name or trademark, even if it makes nothing itself.
This page reflects the rules as of 10 July 2026. Regulatory dates are dated and may change, confirm against the current instruments or with qualified advisers.
EU product law does not ask where a product was made; it asks who put it on the EU market. "Placing on the market" means the first making available of a product on the Union market, and the operator who does that carries the compliance obligations for it, including, where a delegated act requires one, the Digital Product Passport.
Under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, in force since July 2024), those obligations are assigned role by role: manufacturers (Article 27), authorised representatives (Article 28), importers (Article 29), distributors (Article 30), dealers (Article 31), fulfilment service providers (Article 33) and online marketplaces (Article 35). One legal entity can hold more than one role at once; an importer that also brands the product is treated as the manufacturer.
One caveat that matters as of July 2026: the ESPR framework does not by itself make any product need a passport. The DPP becomes mandatory product group by product group through delegated acts. Batteries come first, from 18 February 2027, under their own regulation. But the responsibility structure below is already fixed in law, so you can work out today whether the obligation will land on you.
For products manufactured in the EU, Article 27(1)(c) ESPR is explicit: when placing a product covered by a delegated act on the market, the manufacturer must ensure a digital product passport is available in accordance with Article 9 and the delegated acts adopted pursuant to Article 4, including a back-up copy of the most up-to-date version held by a DPP service provider (Article 10(4)).
The manufacturer also signs the EU declaration of conformity, draws up the technical documentation, and must put its name, address and electronic contact details on the public part of the passport (Article 27(6)). The passport is part of the same conformity package as the CE marking, not a separate marketing exercise.
A common assumption is that a manufacturer in China, the UK or the US is "outside the rules." The manufacturer may be, but the product is not. Article 29(2)(c) ESPR requires the importer, before placing a product on the market, to ensure that a digital product passport is available, the same requirement, including the back-up copy, that applies to an EU manufacturer. The importer must also verify that the manufacturer carried out conformity assessment and drew up the technical documentation, and must add its own name and contact details to the public part of the passport (Article 29(3)).
The Batteries Regulation works the same way: the importer, defined as a person established in the Union placing a battery from a third country on the market (Article 3, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542), must verify the manufacturer's conformity work before placing the battery on the market (Article 41), and as the operator placing it on the market it carries the passport duty in Article 77.
In practice: if you import covered products into the EU, you cannot treat the passport as your supplier's problem. You can (and should) contract for the data, but the legal duty to have the passport available is yours.
Both regulations define "manufacturer" to include any person that has a product designed or manufactured and markets it under their own name or trademark (Article 2 ESPR; Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542). A fashion label whose garments are cut in Portugal, or an equipment brand whose batteries are built in Korea, is the manufacturer in the eyes of EU law.
There is a second route to the same result: Article 34 ESPR (and Article 44 of the Batteries Regulation) provides that an importer or distributor is considered the manufacturer where it places a product on the market under its own name or trademark, or modifies a product in a way that affects compliance. Rebranding, relabelling or materially altering a product moves the full manufacturer obligation set, passport included, onto you.
Outsourced production does not outsource responsibility. If the passport data is wrong, the regulator's conversation is with the brand, not the factory.
The battery passport is the first mandatory DPP and the clearest statement of who is responsible. From 18 February 2027, each LMT battery, EV battery and industrial battery with a capacity above 2 kWh placed on the market or put into service must have a battery passport (Article 77(1), Regulation (EU) 2023/1542).
Article 77(4) then names the responsible party: the economic operator placing the battery on the market shall ensure that the information in the battery passport is accurate, complete and up to date. That operator also attributes the unique identifier the QR code links to (Article 77(3)). The same paragraph allows it to give written authorisation to another operator to act on its behalf, which is how software providers, consultants or suppliers can operate the passport in practice, but the authorisation does not move the legal responsibility.
Responsibility does transfer at defined lifecycle points: when a battery is prepared for re-use, repurposed or remanufactured, the operator placing that battery on the market takes over the Article 77(4) duties and issues a new passport linked to the original (Article 77(7)). The passport ceases to exist once the battery is recycled (Article 77(8)). Note the detailed delegated act on battery passport data content and access rights is due from the Commission by 18 August 2026 and had not been adopted as of July 2026; the responsibility rules above are in the adopted regulation and are not waiting on it.
A non-EU manufacturer can appoint an authorised representative in the EU by written mandate (Article 28 ESPR). But the mandate is limited: the core Article 27(1) obligations, including making the digital product passport available, and the drawing up of technical documentation are expressly excluded from what an authorised representative can take on. An AR keeps documents at the disposal of authorities and cooperates with them; it does not become the responsible operator for your passport.
Distributors and dealers have lighter, verification-level duties: before making a covered product available, a distributor must check that it is labelled or linked to a digital product passport where the delegated act requires it (Article 30(2)(a) ESPR). Fulfilment service providers must ensure warehousing and dispatch do not jeopardise compliance (Article 33). Online marketplaces fall under the Digital Services Act's traceability obligations and must cooperate with market surveillance authorities, who can order non-compliant listings removed (Article 35 ESPR, cross-referencing Regulation (EU) 2022/2065). None of these roles takes the passport obligation off the manufacturer or importer; they extend enforcement along the chain.
Here is the operational consequence the articles don't spell out. The operator legally responsible for the passport is usually not the party that holds the information that goes into it. Material composition sits with tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers. Carbon footprint calculations often come from an external consultant. Recycled-content figures come from the cell maker. Yet Article 77(4) makes one operator answerable for the whole record being accurate, complete and up to date, and ESPR Article 27 puts the same single point of accountability on the manufacturer.
That makes two things worth doing before your product group's rules bite. First, contractual clarity: supply agreements should state who compiles which data fields, in what format, by when, and who is notified when a value changes, because "the supplier never sent it" is not a defence available to the operator named in the regulation. Second, a repeatable way to collect and version that data. This is the problem Passfolia's supplier-data workflow is built for: you send a supplier a tokenised link, they enter their fields directly, and every submission lands in a versioned, auditable product record, so when someone asks where a number came from and when, there is an answer.
No. ESPR Article 29(2)(c) requires the importer to ensure a digital product passport is available before placing a covered product on the EU market, and under the Batteries Regulation the operator placing the battery on the market carries the Article 77(4) duty. You should contract with your manufacturer for the underlying data, but the EU-facing legal obligation is yours.
The opposite. Both ESPR (Article 2) and the Batteries Regulation (Article 3) define the manufacturer to include anyone who has a product made and markets it under their own name or trademark. A brand owner carries the full manufacturer obligations, passport included, regardless of who runs the factory.
You can outsource the work, not the responsibility. Article 77(4) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 lets the responsible operator give written authorisation to another operator to act on its behalf, but the duty to ensure the passport is accurate, complete and up to date stays with the operator that placed the battery on the market. Put the authorisation in writing and keep an audit trail of who changed what.
No. Under ESPR Article 28(1), the manufacturer's core obligations, including making the DPP available, and the technical documentation are expressly excluded from an authorised representative's mandate. The AR holds documents for authorities and cooperates with them; the passport obligation lands on your EU importer, or on you if you place products on the market directly.
Responsibility transfers. Under Article 77(7) of the Batteries Regulation, the economic operator that places a repurposed, remanufactured or prepared-for-re-use battery on the market takes over the passport duties and must issue a new passport linked to the original one. When the battery becomes waste, the duties pass to the producer or waste management operator; after recycling, the passport ceases to exist (Article 77(8)).
Lighter ones. Distributors must verify a product is labelled or linked to a DPP where the applicable delegated act requires it (ESPR Article 30(2)(a)); fulfilment providers must not jeopardise compliance in storage and dispatch (Article 33); marketplaces must cooperate with market surveillance and can be ordered to remove non-compliant listings (Article 35). None of this relieves the manufacturer or importer of the passport itself.
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