are there different rules per EU country for the product passport

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is a regulation, and that is precisely the word that matters in this question. A regulation applies directly in every Member State, without the need for a national law to be made first. Article 1 of the ESPR describes the subject matter and scope of the regulation at EU level, and that is immediately the reason why there is in principle no room for 27 different versions of the passport.

The content of the passport is the same across the EU.

Article 9 of the ESPR describes what a digital product passport must contain and how it must be accessible. These requirements apply in the same way in every Member State. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means that a passport that complies with Article 9 does not in principle need to be redesigned for each country. The platform that hosts the passport, the QR code that serves as a data carrier, and the data it contains are not dependent on whether the product is placed on the market in the Netherlands, Germany or Poland.

The obligations of manufacturers are the same across the EU.

Article 27 of the ESPR describes the obligations of manufacturers, and these obligations too are formulated at EU level. Whoever is a manufacturer within the meaning of this regulation bears the same responsibilities regardless of which Member State the head office is located in or to which Member States the product is sent. This is different from some older legislation, where countries sometimes imposed their own additional requirements on packaging, language or registration. Anyone wishing to determine whether the role of manufacturer applies to their own situation will find the basis for this in Am I an importer or manufacturer according to the ESPR?.

Enforcement and supervision take place through the Member States.

Whilst the content of the obligations is the same, supervision of compliance lies with national market surveillance authorities. Each Member State appoints its own supervisory authorities, and those authorities operate within their own national organisation, with their own working methods, priorities and communication. This explains why two companies with a comparable product, active in different Member States, sometimes have different experiences with inspections or enquiries from a supervisory authority — not because the rules differ, but because enforcement in each country has its own practice.

Where things go wrong in practice

Having a passport created for each sales country. A company selling the same product in five Member States sometimes thinks that a customised version of the passport is needed for each country, for example due to language. However, the core of the required data follows from Article 9 of the ESPR and applies across the EU for the same product; language choices for presentation are a different matter from the question of whether the content itself differs from country to country.

Confusion between "EU rule" and "national law". Because the ESPR is a regulation and not a directive, there is no national transposition law to look up. Companies searching for "the Dutch product passport law" will not find it, and sometimes incorrectly conclude that nothing has been arranged yet. The obligation is already directly in the regulation itself.

Assuming that supervision is equally strict or organized in the same way everywhere. Because implementation is the responsibility of national supervisory authorities, the way controls are carried out differs. A company selling through an online marketplace in several Member States therefore runs the risk of receiving different signals from different sources. Those who want to know more about this in the context of marketplace sales will find background information on What does the digital product passport mean if I sell products via an online marketplace?.

Unclear distribution chain running through several Member States. With private label products or when selling under a proprietary brand, the manufacturer is sometimes in one country, the brand owner in another and the distributor in a third. Because the obligations under article 27 are linked to a role and not to a country, the question of which party bears which obligation remains independent of where in the EU those parties are established. More information on this can be found on who is liable for the product passport in the case of private label products and on I sell products under my own brand — what obligations do I incur?.

Manufacturer outside the EU, selling in several Member States. A manufacturer located outside the EU who places products on the market in several Member States sometimes assumes that a different representative is needed for each Member State. However, the role of authorized representative follows from the regulation itself and is not tied to a single Member State in the way often assumed. Background information on this can be found on My manufacturer is located outside the EU — who arranges the digital product passport then? and on do I need a mandated representative in the EU for the product passport.

What you can document

• An overview of the Member States in which the product is actually placed on the market, so that it is clear which national supervisory authorities may be relevant.
• Documentation showing which party in the chain fulfils which role (manufacturer, importer, distributor, authorized representative), regardless of the country of establishment.
• A fixed version of the passport content that complies with article 9 of the ESPR, with possible language variants for display, but without substantive differences per sales country.
• Correspondence or record of contact with national supervisory authorities, per Member State where relevant, so that any difference in approach between countries remains traceable.
• Internal agreements on who within the company is responsible for monitoring changes in the regulation, and who monitors this when the enterprise is active in several Member States. Background on the distribution of responsibility within a chain can be found on Who is responsible for the product passport for products?.