Il-fornittur tiegħi jipprovdi partijiet minn gruppi ta' prodotti differenti — kif nirranġaha?

Dak taħżin li għandek taħdem

A supplier that supplies textiles, furniture components and electronics faces a different moment of obligation, different data requirements and possibly a different scope of application of the delegated regulation for each of these groups. The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) namely works with product group-specific delegated acts: the basic regulation sets the framework, but the content of the passport differs per group. For the company making purchases, this means that one supplier relationship in practice consists of multiple dossiers to be treated separately.

X'jintgħaża minnek

Per product group, check whether and when the passport applies

The fact that a supplier delivers under one name and one framework agreement says nothing about the application moment of the passport per product. Textile components may be made mandatory at a different time than electronic components from the same supplier, simply because the delegated act for that group has a different date of application. For a company of this size, this means that the purchasing administration must not be supplier-focused but product group-focused: keep track per article group of whether, and from which moment, the passport is mandatory. Anyone who has not yet grasped this clearly will find a starting point in meta l-produktu passa jkun obbligatorju għall-prodotti and in the broader question jew il-passaport digitali tal-prodott għall-prodotti tagħhom stess.

Request data per product group separately

Article 10 of the ESPR describes which categories of data a digital product passport must contain, but the precise content — which parameters, which test methods, which substances are reported — is laid down per product group in the delegated act. One request to the supplier with the text "send the passport data" therefore results in three different answers for three product groups, or, worse, one incomplete answer that does not fit any of the groups properly. In practice, it works better to formulate a separate data request per product group, asking which data is precisely needed for that specific category. An overview of what to ask can be found in liema dejtà għandek titlob mill-fornituur tal-prodotti tagħhom.

Make responsibility in the chain clear per role

Article 38 of the ESPR describes obligations for actors in the supply chain, including the provision of information needed to comply with passport obligations. Which party in the chain plays which role — manufacturer, importer, authorised representative — can differ per product group, even if it is physically the same supplier. A supplier who acts as a manufacturer within the EU for one product group can import components from outside the EU for another group, with a different regime of responsibilities. In that latter situation, it is useful to look at what the passport means in the context of importation of products from outside the European Union.

Contractually record that supply differs per product group

A purchase contract that speaks in general terms about "supply of passport data" offers little guidance when a supplier delivers on time for one group and not for the other. It is more workable to agree per product group, or at least per category with its own application date, when which data will be supplied and in which format. How that concretely lands in a contract is described in kif inti tistabbilixxi t-tqarrib tal-data tal-passaport fl-kuntratt ta' akkwist tiegħek.

Fejn taqa' fil-prattika

A common mistake is treating the supplier as one block: data is requested once, a contract is signed once, and it is assumed that this covers all products. As soon as one of the product groups becomes mandatory earlier than the others, it turns out that for that group it was never specifically asked.

A second situation is that the supplier himself does not know that his assortment falls under different regimes. He supplies, for example, mainly electronics and treats a small additional assortment of textiles in the same way — resulting in the wrong, or too little, data being supplied for those textile components.

Punt terz li jirrikorri huwa li s-sistemi ta' akkwist interni jikkodifikaw il-prodotti per grupp ta' artikoli, iżda ma jikkoppljawhom ma' status ta' paspport. Għaldaqstant, f'ordni ġdida ma jissillawhux li grupp ta' prodotti partikolari issa jingħaqad mal-obblign, filwaqt li grupp ieħor mill-istess fornitur għadu ma jkunx affettwat.

Situazzjoni erbgħa tifforma meta hemm subcontracting: il-fornitur jipprovdi t-tiegħu stess komponent assembblerx, iżda jħalli parti minnha tiġi magħmula minn parti terza. Għal grupp ta' prodotti waħed, dak il-komponent huwa deċiżiv għad-dejta fil-paspport, għall-ieħor le. Jekk dan ma jiġix iddistribuwixx, hemm riskju li jitilfu d-dejta li għandha tiġi speċifikament mill-isub-kontrattur — ara wkoll liema dejta tapplika għal dak li tistaqsi minn subkontrattur li jagħmel komponent.

Situazzjoni ħamsa huwa li jibdew ixommu li l-korrettezza kkontrollata tad-dejta għal grupp ta' prodotti waħed awtomatikament jgħid xi ħaġa dwar il-affidabbilità tad-dejta għal grupp ieħor mill-istess fornitur. Dan mhuwiex: kull grupp ta' prodotti għandu s-sorsi tiegħu ta' dejta u kontroll tiegħu stess, kif ukoll tiegħu jinsab meta kif tikkontrolla d-dejta ta' fornitur għat-tħassib.

X'tista' tkun tistabbilisci

• Ħarsa ġenerali per grupp ta' prodotti tal-fornitur, bi numru tad-delett delegat applikabbli u d-data li fih il-paspport għal dak il-grupp jibda jgħodd.
• Per grupp ta' prodotti, riċerka ta' dejta separata lill-fornitur, minflok riċerka waħda ġenerali għall-asortiment kollu.
• Ftehimiet li kontrattwali li per grupp ta' prodotti, jew per kategorija b'data ta' applikazzjoni tagħha stess, jiddikjaraw meta u f'liema format jiġu pprovduti d-dejta.
• Distribuzzjoni ta' rwol stabbilita: għal liema grupp ta' prodotti il-fornitur huwa manifattur, għal liema grupp jieħu rwol bħala importatur, u dak li jfisser lill-obbligi fuq u ħmistejn.
• Nota għal kull grupp ta' prodotti jekk hemm subkontratturi involuti fl-istabbiliment tiegħu, b'riċerka ta' dejta separata diretta lejn dawk il-partijiet.
• Fajl per grupp ta' prodotti bid-dejta rċevuta, il-passi tal-kontroll u d-data tal-aħħar aġġornament, sabiex tibdil f'grupp ta' prodotti waħed ma japplikax b'eistiħbieta għal ieħor.