ESPR explained: what the Ecodesign Regulation means for businesses

What is the ESPR?

The ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) is the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation - officially Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, in force since 18 July 2024. It replaces the old Ecodesign Directive, which only covered energy-related products, and extends the approach to almost all physical products.

One important detail up front: the ESPR is a regulation, not a directive. It applies directly in every EU member state, without national transposition laws. Anyone searching for the “EU product passport directive” almost always means the ESPR.

The goals: a circular economy instead of throwaway products

The ESPR aims to make products on the EU market more durable, more repairable and more circular. Specifically, it addresses:

• Durability and repairability - products should be usable for longer and easier to repair.
• Recycled content and recyclability - more secondary material, better product design for recycling.
• Transparency - buyers should be able to trace materials, origin and environmental impact.
• Resource and carbon footprint - measurable and comparable across product groups.

The four central instruments

1. Ecodesign requirements per product group. The European Commission sets minimum requirements in delegated acts - for example on durability, repairability or recycled content. Products that do not meet them may not be placed on the market.
2. The Digital Product Passport (DPP). The transparency instrument of the ESPR: a machine-readable data set for each product, accessible via QR code. Exactly what it contains is likewise governed by the relevant delegated act. The fundamentals are explained in our DPP guide.
3. The ban on destroying unsold goods. From 19 July 2026, large companies may no longer destroy unsold textiles and footwear; medium-sized companies follow in 2030, small ones are exempt. Further product groups may follow.
4. Disclosure obligations. In future, companies must report how many unsold products they discard and why.

The working plan: who is up first?

In the first ESPR working plan (April 2025), the European Commission named the prioritised product groups:

For these groups the delegated acts are expected from around 2027; the respective DPP obligation then becomes binding after a transition period of usually 18 months. We have compiled the specific key dates per sector in the guide Digital Product Passport: All deadlines.

Not everything runs through the ESPR: batteries are covered by the dedicated EU Battery Regulation with a fixed key date of 18/02/2027, and toys by the new EU Toy Safety Regulation - details on our sector pages for batteries & e-bikes and toys.

What does the ESPR mean for your business in concrete terms?

In the short term, the obligation arises product group by product group - but the preparation is the same across sectors:

1. Check whether you are affected: Do your products fall into a prioritised group? Then your realistic planning horizon is 2027-2029.
2. Build your data base: material composition, origin, certificates and repair information for each article - this is the core of every later product passport and at the same time the most time-consuming part.
3. Embed processes: Who maintains the data when suppliers or materials change? The DPP is an ongoing process, not a one-off project.

For practical implementation - data capture, validation against mandatory data, publication via QR code - SolveDPP’s DPP software is built. What this costs is shown in the guide What does a Digital Product Passport cost?