There is no fixed price for a digital product passport. The regulation prescribes what must be included in a passport and how it must be accessible, but it does not specify a fee. The amount you ultimately pay is the result of choices: how many product groups are involved, how your data is already organized, and whether you build it yourself or have it handled for you.
The main cost items are therefore not legally fixed, but they can be traced clearly. They roughly break down into compiling the data, technically preparing and hosting the passport, and the physical QR data carrier on the product itself. Anyone who looks at these three components separately will quickly see where the most work lies in their own business.
Where the amount comes from
Because the regulation does not prescribe a price, the amount is determined by the market: software suppliers, service providers who compile passports, and printers or label makers for the data carrier together determine what a passport costs in practice. This also explains why two companies with comparable products can receive very different quotes. A company with data neatly organized in one system typically pays less work to order information than a company where the same data is scattered across multiple spreadsheets and emails.
What determines the price
The number of product groups you operate in is usually the first factor. An installation company that supplies both heating equipment and electrical components faces multiple passport obligations, each requiring its own data set. If you are not sure which product groups your assortment falls into, you can have that determined in a few questions before requesting a quote.
A second factor is the state of your source data: are specifications, materials and origin already structured in an ERP or PIM system, or does that still need to be collected and checked? This also affects the conversation you will eventually have with your software supplier, as they determine whether data can be supplied automatically or must be manually retyped.
A third factor is the duration and method of hosting. The regulation requires that a passport remain accessible for a longer period after a product is placed on the market. This means that costs do not stop when the passport is set up, but continue for as long as it must remain available, including maintaining the link behind the QR code.
Finally, the data carrier itself counts: adding a QR code to packaging, a label or product is a physical production process, with its own costs for material, printing and integration into existing production lines.
One-off costs and ongoing costs
It is useful to distinguish in advance between what is one-off and what will continue to recur. Compiling the first version of a passport, setting up a template for each product group and having data carriers printed are predominantly one-off costs per product line. Updating data when the assortment changes, monitoring amendments to the regulations and maintaining hosting are costs that apply over the entire duration of the obligation. Companies that have this distinction clear beforehand avoid being surprised later by costs that they had initially estimated as one-off.
Build yourself or outsource
For many SMEs, the choice between setting up a system themselves and placing this with a party that compiles and hosts passports is at the heart of the cost consideration. Building yourself requires investment in knowledge, software and management capacity that must be maintained for years after the initial setup. Outsourcing shifts that burden to a fixed, manageable contribution. How such a cooperation looks in practice and what information is needed for it is described on the page that explains where the information in a passport comes from. A concrete overview of rates per situation can be found on the pricing page.
Whichever route you consider, it is wise to first clarify which product groups your company falls into and what the regulation precisely requires for those. More background on the obligations themselves, aside from the costs, can be read in the knowledge base with explanations per topic. For your own situation, and for questions about how a supervisory authority handles this, a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority remains the appropriate point of contact.
Would you like to know first where your own assortment stands before you start comparing costs? Take the free quick-scan or browse through the topics in the knowledge base; both provide a concrete picture within half an hour without you having to commit to anything immediately.