What is the ESPR?
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, is the EU law that underpins the Digital Product Passport (DPP). It entered into force on 18 July 2024 and replaced the earlier Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC).
Unlike the directive it supersedes, the ESPR is a regulation: it applies directly and uniformly across every EU member state without national transposition. It also extends ecodesign far beyond energy-related products to cover almost every category of physical good sold in the EU.
How the ESPR makes the DPP a legal requirement
The ESPR is a framework regulation. On its own, it does not force every product to carry a passport overnight. It establishes the Digital Product Passport as a legal instrument and gives the European Commission the power to make it mandatory, category by category.
For the products it covers, the regulation can require, among other things:
- a Digital Product Passport reachable through a data carrier such as a QR code or NFC tag;
- ecodesign requirements on durability, reparability, recycled content and more;
- rules restricting the destruction of unsold consumer products.
Once a product group is brought into scope, the DPP stops being best practice and becomes a condition for placing the product on the EU market.
Delegated acts: rules set product group by product group
The detailed obligations are not written into the ESPR itself. They are defined through delegated acts, secondary legislation adopted by the Commission for each specific product group.
Each delegated act sets out:
- which products are covered;
- exactly what data the passport must carry;
- the performance and information requirements that apply;
- the transition period before the rules become binding (typically around 18 months).
This is why there is no single moment when the DPP switches on for every product. Each industry follows the timeline of its own delegated act.
The 2025-2030 working plan and its priority groups
In its first ESPR working plan (2025-2030), the Commission named the first product groups in line for ecodesign and DPP rules. The priority groups include:
- Textiles, with apparel identified as the top priority;
- Furniture;
- Tyres;
- Mattresses;
- Iron and steel;
- Aluminium.
The plan also flags horizontal measures, such as a repairability score and recyclability requirements for electrical and electronic equipment. Delegated acts for these groups are expected to be adopted on a staggered basis across the plan period.
Who must comply: scope and enforcement
The ESPR applies to products placed on the EU market, and that is what determines its reach:
- it covers products regardless of company size, subject to specific provisions that may adjust obligations for smaller firms;
- it covers products regardless of where the company is based: a manufacturer outside the EU that sells into the single market is bound by the same rules, with responsibility falling on the importer or an authorised representative.
The trigger is the market, not the nationality of the business. Any company selling covered goods in the EU will eventually need a compliant DPP for those goods.
To understand how a passport is built and what it contains in practice, see our main guide to the Digital Product Passport.