Regulation (EU) 2024/1781

ESPR — Ecodesign for Sustainable Products

Listrar summary

ESPR is the frame the rest of the decade hangs on. It replaces the old Ecodesign Directive and lets the Commission set product-by-product rules — durability, repairability, recycled content — through delegated acts, and it invents the Digital Product Passport: a machine-readable record that will ride along with most physical goods sold in the EU. The regulation itself names no products. The delegated acts do, group by group, which is why a registry has to be able to absorb new fields without re-platforming.

Who does it apply to?

Manufacturers placing physical goods on the EU market, wherever they produce
Importers and distributors of those goods
Dealers, including online sellers
Fulfilment service providers
Online marketplaces and search engines (art. 35)

Main obligations

Meet the ecodesign requirements the delegated act for your product group sets (art. 6-8)
Carry a Digital Product Passport once your group's act applies, with the data model, identifiers and access rules of arts. 9-11
Register the passport identifier in the Commission's central registry before placing the product on the market (art. 13)
Large companies: stop destroying unsold apparel and footwear (art. 25) and disclose discarded volumes (art. 24)
Answer market-surveillance and customs checks that verify a passport exists and resolves (art. 15)

Key dates

13 June 2024: Adopted
18 July 2024: In force
16 April 2025: First working plan: textiles, furniture, tyres, mattresses, iron & steel, aluminium
19 July 2026: Destruction ban on unsold textiles and footwear — in force for large companies (medium-sized: 2030)
2026 → 2030: Delegated acts land group by group; each brings the DPP obligation with it

Products in scope

Nearly all physical goods placed on the EU market — the scope is 'any physical good', carved back by exceptions
First wave (2025 working plan): textiles and apparel, furniture, tyres, mattresses, iron & steel, aluminium
Out of scope: food, feed, medicinal products, living organisms, and vehicles covered by their own type-approval rules

Obligations by actor

Manufacturer: Design to the delegated act, create and maintain the passport, register its identifier, keep technical documentation (art. 27)
Importer: Verify the passport exists and is correct before the product crosses the border (art. 29)
Distributor: Check the passport link is present before making the product available (art. 30)
Dealer: Make the passport accessible to customers at the point of sale, including online (art. 31)
Marketplace: Ensure listings carry the passport reference their product group requires (art. 35)

Documents and evidence to keep

Technical documentation behind every declared attribute, kept for the delegated act's retention period
The passport data itself, live at a resolvable address for the product's lifetime
Registration proof from the EU passport registry
For large companies: records of unsold goods and what happened to them

Sanctions and risks

Penalties are set by each Member State — effective, proportionate, dissuasive is the floor, not the ceiling (art. 74)
Non-compliant products can be withdrawn from the market or refused at customs (art. 15)
A product whose passport does not resolve is, once its delegated act applies, a product that cannot legally be sold

Key articles

Art. 9-11 — the Digital Product Passport: what it is, what it contains, how it must work technically
Art. 13 — the central DPP registry every passport identifier must be filed in
Art. 25 — the ban on destroying unsold consumer products (Annex VII: apparel and footwear first)
Art. 27-35 — obligations of manufacturers, importers, distributors, dealers and marketplaces
Art. 74 — penalties