Many companies selling products in multiple EU countries wonder whether the digital product passport works differently in Germany, France or Belgium than in the Netherlands. The answer: the core of the obligation is laid down in a single European regulation, and that text applies literally in every Member State in the same way. What can differ, however, is who oversees it, in which language you must be able to demonstrate something, and how a supervisory authority acts in practice.
This distinction between one rule and different implementation is the core of this article. If you only sell in the Netherlands, it makes little difference. If you have distributors in other Member States, export, or purchase products from outside the EU, it is good to know where the regulation itself speaks and where a country provides its own interpretation.
A regulation works differently than a directive
The rules for the digital product passport come from a regulation, not a directive. This difference is more important than it seems. A directive instructs a Member State to translate an objective into its own legislation, and differences arise: one country chooses a stricter wording than another. A regulation works directly: the text is, from the moment it applies, binding law in every EU country, without a translation step by the national legislator. For the product passport, this means that the obligations set out in the regulation and the associated product-specific rules are not rewritten for each country.
What is the same in every EU country
Because it is a regulation, a number of things are fixed EU-wide. Which data a passport must contain for a specific product category, who in the chain is responsible for creating it, how long the information must remain available, and that access must be via a QR code or similar carrier: this is set out in the regulation itself and in the delegated acts per product category, not in national legislation. A manufacturer selling in multiple countries therefore does not need to have the content of the passport redrawn for each country. In the knowledge base sorted by topic is listed per product category which part of the obligation comes directly from the European text.
What can differ per country
Supervision and enforcement
The regulation prescribes that each Member State designates one or more market surveillance authorities. Which authority exactly this is varies from country to country and often also by product category within that country. In the Netherlands, supervision is usually with a different organisation than, for example, in Germany or France. This means that a company operating in multiple countries may have to deal with multiple supervisory authorities, each with their own way of working and their own point of contact.
Language
The regulation itself does not specify in which language all information must be available. National rules on consumer protection and product information may, however, set requirements for the language in which data is accessible to a consumer in that country. If you sell a product in multiple Member States, it is therefore useful to check per country whether there is a language requirement in addition to EU-wide content requirements.
Penalties and enforcement style
The regulation leaves the design of penalties to the Member States, within a framework determined by the EU. As a result, the way an infringement is addressed, and what penalty applies to it, can differ from country to country. What enforcement happens in the Netherlands does not automatically say anything about how a supervisory authority in another EU country proceeds.
What this means for a company with multiple countries
For a company with locations, importers or distributors in multiple Member States, it is worthwhile to examine two things separately for each country: which supervisory authority operates there, and whether there is a language or format requirement on top of the EU content. This is different from the question of who in the supply chain is responsible for the passport itself — that role distribution between manufacturer, importer and distributor is fixed EU-wide. If you are uncertain about the role distribution within your own supply chain, this is a question that differs per company and is best addressed to a lawyer or the supervisory authority in the relevant country.
Find out for yourself what applies to you
Because the differences between countries mainly lie in the implementation and not in the core content of the passport, it is for most companies primarily a matter of determining which supervisory authority and which language requirements apply to each sales country. In the frequently asked questions about the product passport a number of these differences per topic are explained, and in the explanation of where our information comes from you can see that each answer is traceable to the official text on EUR-Lex, so you can check for yourself what is fixed at EU level and what is filled in locally.
Do you want to know where your own situation stands, including the countries in which you are active? Take the free quick-scan and see in a few questions where you stand, or browse through the topics in the knowledge base for details per product group.