---
title: "ESPR: The First Acts and What a Digital Product Passport Will Hold"
description: "The first ESPR acts concern unsold clothes and shoes, not product design. What is law, what is planned, and what a digital product passport will contain."
type: "article"
url: "https://www.conphora.com/knowledge/espr-first-acts-digital-product-passport/"
markdown: "https://www.conphora.com/knowledge/espr-first-acts-digital-product-passport.md"
locale: "en"
language: "en"
published: "2026-04-15"
updated: "2026-04-15"
author: "Conphora Editorial"
publisher: "Conphora"
tags: ["ESPR", "ecodesign", "digital product passport", "unsold products", "textiles", "ESPR digital product passport"]
license: "Free to quote with attribution and a link to the page"
---

# ESPR: The First Acts and What a Digital Product Passport Will Hold

> The first ESPR acts concern unsold clothes and shoes, not product design. What is law, what is planned, and what a digital product passport will contain.

## In short

The first acts under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, adopted by the Commission on 9 February 2026, concern unsold apparel and footwear; product-specific digital product passport requirements will follow in later delegated acts.

- From 19 July 2026, the destruction of unsold apparel, clothing accessories and footwear listed in Annex VII is prohibited; micro and small enterprises are exempt and medium-sized enterprises are covered from 19 July 2030 (ESPR Article 25(1)).
- On 9 February 2026 the Commission adopted a delegated act on derogations from the destruction ban and an implementing act on the format for disclosing discarded unsold products.
- The Commission must set up the digital product passport registry by 19 July 2026 (ESPR Article 13(1)).
- The 2025–2030 working plan, published on 16 April 2025, gives indicative adoption years for iron and steel (2026), textiles and tyres (2027), furniture (2028) and mattresses (2029).

## ESPR in one paragraph

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation – Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, the ESPR – entered into force on 18 July 2024. It replaces the old Ecodesign Directive for energy-related products with a framework that can cover almost any physical product. The framework itself sets few product rules. Instead, the Commission adopts delegated acts for one product group at a time, setting performance requirements – durability, repairability, recycled content, carbon footprint – and information requirements, usually delivered through a [digital product passport](/research/glossary/digital-product-passport). As a rule, those requirements apply no earlier than 18 months after the act enters into force (Article 4(4)).

The regulation does contain a few direct obligations. The first acts adopted under it concern one of them: the destruction of unsold consumer products.

## The acts of 9 February 2026

On 9 February 2026 the Commission adopted two acts under the ESPR, both on unsold products:

- **A delegated act on derogations.** It sets out the specific and justified circumstances in which destroying unsold products remains allowed – for example for safety reasons or because the product is damaged. As a [delegated act](/research/glossary/delegated-act), it enters into force only if neither the European Parliament nor the Council objects within two months of being notified of it, a period either of them can extend by two months (Article 72(6)).
- **An implementing act on disclosure.** Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 sets a standard format for reporting the number and weight of unsold consumer products a business discards. It was published on 10 February 2026, entered into force on 2 March 2026 and applies from 2 March 2027.

Neither act sets ecodesign requirements for a product group or creates a product passport. That is the important distinction for anyone planning DPP work: the first ESPR acts are about what happens to products that are not sold.

## The destruction ban from 19 July 2026 (Article 25)

The ban itself is in the regulation. Under Article 25(1), from 19 July 2026 the destruction of unsold consumer products listed in Annex VII is prohibited. Annex VII currently covers two groups:

- **apparel and clothing accessories** – including articles of leather, knitted and non-knitted apparel, and hats and headgear;
- **footwear.**

The ban does not apply to micro and small enterprises. Medium-sized enterprises are covered from 19 July 2030. Operators outside the ban may not destroy products supplied to them in order to circumvent it (Article 25(2)).

Alongside the ban, Article 24 requires economic operators that discard unsold consumer products to disclose each year how many they discarded, by weight and category, the reasons, how the products were treated, and what they do to prevent it. Micro and small enterprises are exempt; medium-sized enterprises are covered from 19 July 2030. From 2 March 2027 the disclosure follows the format in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2.

**What to do now:** if you are a large company selling clothing, accessories or footwear in the EU, check how returns, end-of-season stock and damaged goods are handled today, by you and by your logistics partners, and record the reasons whenever products are discarded.

## The digital product passport: what it will hold

No product group yet has ESPR passport requirements. The framework, however, fixes what a passport is and what it can contain.

**The rule (Article 9).** Where a delegated act sets information requirements, products can only be placed on the market if a digital product passport is available. The delegated act will specify the data, the data carrier, whether the passport is at model, batch or item level, and who can access what.

**The essential requirements (Article 10).** A passport must be connected through a data carrier to a persistent unique product identifier; the data carrier must be physically present on the product, its packaging or accompanying documentation; the data must be based on open standards, machine-readable and transferable without vendor lock-in; and personal data about customers may not be stored without their explicit consent.

**The possible content (Annex III).** Delegated acts choose from a list that includes the unique product identifier, the GTIN, commodity codes, compliance documentation such as the declaration of conformity and technical documentation, user manuals, instructions and safety information, and information about the manufacturer and other operators.

**The registry (Article 13).** By 19 July 2026, the Commission must set up a digital registry that stores at least the unique identifiers. The operator placing the product on the market uploads the data. The same registry will hold the unique identifiers of batteries under the Batteries Regulation, whose own passport applies from February 2027 – see our article on the [battery passport and due diligence dates](/knowledge/battery-passport-due-diligence-2027).

## The working plan: planned, not yet law

Which products come first is set out in the Commission's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025–2030, published on 16 April 2025. Its new product priorities and indicative adoption years are:

| Product or measure | Indicative adoption |
|---|---|
| Iron and steel | 2026 |
| Textiles and apparel | 2027 |
| Tyres | 2027 |
| Aluminium | 2027 |
| Repairability (horizontal) | 2027 |
| Furniture | 2028 |
| Mattresses | 2029 |
| Recycled content and recyclability of electrical and electronic equipment | 2029 |

These are planning dates, not legal deadlines. Each requires a delegated act, and requirements will normally apply at least 18 months after that act enters into force. For textiles, for example, an act adopted in 2027 would normally apply no earlier than 18 months after it enters into force – in practice from late 2028 at the earliest.

**What to do now:** if you sell in one of the priority groups, start collecting the data an Annex III passport is likely to need – product identifiers, material composition, compliance documents – in a structured form. The problem page [preparing for the digital product passport](/solutions/problem/dpp-preparation) lists the first steps, and [which ecodesign requirements apply to me](/solutions/problem/ecodesign-requirements) helps with scope.

## How Conphora helps

The ESPR rewards companies whose product data is already structured when the delegated act arrives. Conphora helps you get there:

- **Product records with identifiers** – model, batch or item – ready to connect to a data carrier.
- **Compliance documents per product** – declarations of conformity, technical documentation, instructions – in one place, as Annex III expects.
- **Supplier data requests** for materials and composition, stored with the product.
- **Regulation tracking** that separates applicable law from planned acts, so you prepare in the right order.

[See how Conphora works](/how-it-works).

---

**Three months to the destruction ban, and the passport rules are on their way.** Start structuring your product data now. [See plans and pricing →](/pricing)

## Sources

- [Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 on ecodesign for sustainable products (ESPR)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1781/oj)
- [Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2 on the disclosure of discarded unsold consumer products](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2026/2/oj)
- [European Commission: New EU rules to stop the destruction of unsold clothes and shoes (9 February 2026)](https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-eu-rules-stop-destruction-unsold-clothes-and-shoes-2026-02-09_en)
- [Ecodesign for Sustainable Products and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025–2030, COM(2025) 187](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52025DC0187)
- [European Commission: Implementing the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation](https://green-forum.ec.europa.eu/implementing-ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en)