How do I document the supply of passport data in my purchase contract?

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

A product passport is compiled from data that originates somewhere in the chain: from the manufacturer of a component, from a subcontractor, or from an importer who places products from outside the EU on the market. Who ultimately has to draw up the passport depends on their own role, but the data itself often comes from another company. This makes the purchase contract one of the practical places where the supply of passport data is regulated.

Data from suppliers are needed to be able to compile the passport

The ESPR describes in article 38 that actors in the supply chain have a role in making available the information necessary for the product passport. For a company of 10 to 100 employees, this means that its own suppliers — from raw material supplier to component maker — must provide data that will subsequently be included in the passport of the end product. Without that supply, part of the information that the passport must contain is missing. Which data exactly that is varies per product group and per component; which data must I request from my product supplier provides an overview of this.

Importers have their own obligation to check and pass on data

Whoever imports products from outside the EU falls under article 29 of the ESPR. This states that importers must check whether the manufacturer has completed the required conformity procedures and whether the product is accompanied by the necessary information, including the product passport. For an importing company, this means that the purchasing relationship with the manufacturer outside the EU is not only about price and delivery time, but also about whether and how passport data are supplied. More about this role can be found in what does the product passport mean if I import products from outside the European Union.

The purchasing relationship must settle something about the form and timing of delivery

Neither of the articles prescribes a contract form. What does follow from them, however, is that somewhere in the relationship between buyer and supplier something must be agreed upon regarding which data are supplied and that those data are correct. For a company that purchases from multiple suppliers, that is a practical task: not every supplier delivers data in the same way, in the same form or at the same time.

Where things go wrong in practice

A common situation is that the purchase contract does contain agreements on quality, delivery time and price, but nothing about the passport data. The buyer then assumes that the supplier "will sort it out", while the supplier does not see a separate obligation there because the contract says nothing about it.

It also happens that the data are supplied, but too late — only after the product is delivered, whereas the passport must be present at the time of delivery. Without an agreement on the timing of delivery, this creates a delay that lies not with the buyer, but with the supplier, while the buyer is still held accountable for it.

A third situation: the supplier supplies data, but not in a form that can be processed — a PDF with free text instead of structured data that fits into the passport. The result is that the buyer has to manually transfer the data, with a risk of errors. How to check that data can be found in how do I check whether the data from my supplier are correct.

Furthermore, it happens that a company changes supplier without anything being laid down in the contract about the data from the previous supplier that have already been processed in an existing passport. This raises the question of whether and how the passport needs to be adjusted, a subject that is addressed in I am changing supplier, does the product passport need to be adjusted.

Finally, things go wrong when a supplier delivers components that are processed in multiple product groups, and the contract does not make clear which data is needed for which application. This applies for example to my supplier delivers components from different product groups — how do I handle that.

What you can document

In the purchase contract, or in an annex to it, the following can be included:

• A description of the data to be supplied, tailored to the product group of the component or the end product, so that the supplier knows what information is expected.
• The time of delivery, for example linked to the delivery of the product itself, so that the data does not have to be requested afterwards.
• The form in which data is supplied, so that it can be processed in the product passport without retyping.
• A provision on the accuracy of the data, in which the supplier declares that the supplied information is correct at the time of delivery.
• An agreement on changes, so that it is clear what happens if a supplier changes or if a component is adjusted — relevant in situations such as described in I use multiple suppliers for the same component, how does the product passport work then.
• A confidentiality clause, in case the supplier considers data as confidential; see can I request a confidentiality agreement from my supplier regarding passport data.
• A reference to subcontractors, so that data from parties working for the supplier are also included; see what data do I request from a subcontractor who manufactures a component.
• A procedure in case data is missing or incorrect, so that it is clear in advance what steps are taken instead of having to sort this out at delivery; see also my supplier does not supply the data — what can I do.

For companies that still need to determine whether these agreements are already relevant for their products, does the digital product passport apply to my products and when does the product passport become mandatory for products a first orientation, and provides what is a digital product passport for products background on the data that ultimately matters.