ESPR Explained: Regulation (EU) 2024/1781

Most summaries of the ESPR start by listing what it requires. That is misleading, because on its own the ESPR requires almost nothing. Understanding it means understanding the mechanism it creates rather than the obligations it imposes — because the obligations arrive later, and separately, for each kind of product.

What is the ESPR?

It entered into force in July 2024, replacing the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC. Two changes matter most. First, scope: the old directive applied mainly to energy-related products, while the ESPR reaches almost all physical goods. Second, instrument: a regulation applies directly in every member state, where a directive had to be transposed into national law first, producing 27 slightly different versions.

How do delegated acts work?

This is the part that determines whether the ESPR affects you next year or not for several. The framework sets out what kinds of requirements may be imposed. A delegated act, adopted for a specific product group, sets out what is actually required — the exact parameters, thresholds, data fields and passport rules.

What can the ESPR actually require?

Article 5 sets out the parameters a delegated act may address. In practice they group into performance requirements — how the product must behave — and information requirements, which is where the Digital Product Passport sits.

Reading that table, the shape of the regulation becomes clear: the performance requirements change what you build, and the information requirements change what you can prove about it. The passport is the vehicle for the second half.

The ban on destroying unsold consumer goods

One ESPR provision applies without waiting for a delegated act and is often missed. The regulation prohibits the destruction of unsold consumer products in specified categories, beginning with textiles, apparel and footwear, and requires economic operators to disclose the volumes they discard and why.

For brands that have historically managed excess inventory by destroying it — to protect pricing or avoid grey-market resale — this is a direct operational change, not a reporting one. Small and micro enterprises are exempt, with medium-sized enterprises given a longer runway.

Who does the ESPR apply to?

The obligation attaches to the economic operator placing the product on the EU market. That is normally the manufacturer, but where a manufacturer is established outside the EU it falls to the importer, and to the authorised representative where one is appointed.

• Manufacturers in the EU carry the obligation directly for products they place on the market.
• Importers carry it for goods manufactured outside the EU — this is how the ESPR reaches non-EU factories in practice.
• Distributors must not make available products they know to be non-compliant, which pulls retailers and marketplaces into the chain.
• Online marketplaces face specific duties around listings, making compliance a condition of access to a sales channel rather than only a legal question.

How is the ESPR enforced?

Enforcement runs through national market surveillance authorities, the same bodies that already police CE marking and product safety. They may request documentation, test products, and require corrective action, withdrawal or recall.

Penalties are set by member states rather than in the regulation itself, which means exposure varies by where a product is placed on the market. The regulation requires that penalties be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and permits exclusion from public procurement and from EU funding as sanctions — often a more material consequence than a fine.

How does the ESPR interact with other EU regulations?

The ESPR does not arrive into empty space. It overlaps with several regulations that already demand product or supply chain data, and the overlaps are the reason a single well-modelled dataset is worth far more than a set of separate compliance projects.

Read down the right-hand column and the same four facts appear repeatedly: what it is made of, where that came from, what it cost the environment, and what happens to it at the end. Collect those once, model them against the product, and each regulation becomes a different view over the same record.

What does a delegated act actually contain?

Because the delegated act is what binds you, it is worth knowing its anatomy before yours is published. Each one follows a broadly consistent structure.

1. Scope definition — precisely which products fall inside the group, usually by customs code and technical characteristics. This is the first thing to read, because scope boundaries are often narrower or wider than expected.
2. Performance requirements — the thresholds the product itself must meet, such as minimum durability or recycled content.
3. Information requirements — what must be declared, in what units, calculated to which method. This is where the Digital Product Passport fields are set.
4. Conformity assessment — how compliance is demonstrated and documented.
5. Transitional provisions — the dates, including the period before enforcement and any staged thresholds.

The information requirements section is the one that determines your data work, and it is usually the longest. The performance requirements section is the one that may require product redesign, which has a much longer lead time than any data project.

What should you do before your delegated act arrives?

The interval between "named in the working plan" and "act adopted" is the cheapest time to prepare, and the easiest to waste. Three things are worth doing regardless of exactly what your delegated act ends up requiring.

1. Map your data gaps against the parameters in Article 5. Whatever your act specifies, it will draw from that list. Composition and footprint data are where almost everyone is short.
2. Get supplier data obligations into contracts now. Contract cycles are slow, and a supplier who is not obliged to give you material data will not do so under time pressure.
3. Model your data against a product model, not a regulatory form. If your schema mirrors one delegated act, the next one is a rebuild; if it mirrors the product, the next one is a mapping.

None of this depends on knowing your final field list. All of it takes longer than the transition period allows if you start when the act is published.