There is no fixed rate for connecting your software provider to the digital product passport. The amount is made up of two parts: a one-time fee for setting up the connection, and an ongoing fee for maintenance and keeping the data up to date. How much that is in total mainly depends on how your current system is structured and how many product groups you have.
The one-time fee covers the work required to get your existing data — for example from an ERP system, a PIM system or separate Excel files — into the correct format for the passport. The more structured that data already is, the lower that fee will be. The ongoing fee concerns hosting, processing changes and keeping the QR data carrier available during the mandatory period.
Where the one-time costs come from
Setting up a connection typically consists of three components: mapping which data you already have, converting it to the format that applies to your product group, and testing the connection itself. Companies with one product group and a manageable product range often have less work to do than companies that carry products in multiple categories, such as both electronics and furniture. Each product group has its own set of mandatory data, and these must be set up separately.
The state of your current records also matters. If article data is already centralized in one system, the connection is often a matter of technical implementation. If it is spread across different departments or files, collecting and cleaning that data usually takes more time than the connection itself. Anyone who wants to get an overview of this before requesting a quote can get a first indication in a few questions from where your own company stands.
Where the ongoing costs come from
After the connection is set up, the meter keeps running, and there is a reason for that: the passport must remain current as long as the product is on the market, and the QR data carrier must remain accessible during the prescribed period. That ongoing fee typically covers hosting, processing changes in product data, and managing the connection itself when your software provider or your internal system changes.
The number of product variants plays a larger role here than the number of product groups. A product range with a hundred virtually identical variants requires relatively little maintenance, while a product range that changes frequently — new suppliers, new materials, new packaging — requires more management. This also touches on another issue: if you already have GDPR processes running around supplier data, you can often reuse those when setting up the connection.
What explains the spread between providers
The bandwidth between providers is in practice large, and that is mainly in what is delivered. Some parties only provide the technical connection and leave the collection and verification of data to you. Other parties take that work over, or offer templates and a fixed structure in which you enter data yourself. That difference explains a large part of the price differences you encounter in quotes.
To be able to compare quotes properly, it is useful to explicitly ask what is included in the one-time amount and what in the ongoing amount, and whether the price is calculated per product group or per product. An overview of how this is structured at prodpas.eu can be found on the pricing page. A general overview of what this regulation includes, and how the different components relate to each other, can be found in the knowledge bank by subject.
Compare for yourself before you choose
Because each business has a different starting point, it is difficult to name a single amount in advance that applies to everyone. What does help is to first map out yourself in how many product groups you are active, how your data is currently recorded, and how often your assortment changes. With that information, you can compare quotes from different suppliers on the same components, rather than on one total amount that does not cover the same things everywhere.
Would you like to know first where your business stands for which product groups, before you talk to a supplier? Do the free quick-scan or read the topics that are relevant to your situation in the knowledge bank.