How do I record the supply of passport data in my purchasing contract?

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

The ESPR imposes obligations on actors in the supply chain (Article 38) and on importers (Article 29). For a brand or importer that has clothing manufactured by a manufacturer outside the EU, this means in practice that the data for the digital product passport must come from somewhere — and that source must be properly arranged.

Obtaining manufacturer data

An importer placing clothing on the EU market is responsible under Article 29 of the ESPR for the conformity of the product, even if the data has actually been drawn up by a manufacturer elsewhere. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means that requesting data cannot be optional: there must be a fixed procedure to obtain the correct data per collection or per order. Which data precisely is described in the overview of which data you request from your clothing and textile supplier.

Passing data on to the next actors in the chain

Article 38 addresses actors in the supply chain in the broad sense: not only the manufacturer, but also intermediaries that process, package or resell the product. For a company that itself also supplies other parties — for example a wholesaler that supplies retailers — this means that the data received must also be able to be passed on correctly. This requires an internal agreement on who manages the data and keeps it up to date.

Being able to substantiate the accuracy of the data

The obligations in both articles presuppose that the data supplied are correct. For an importer who is not themselves involved in production, this means that something must be organised to verify or substantiate the supplied data, for example with certificates. How this works in practice is described under verifying the data from your supplier for accuracy.

Establishing who is responsible for what

Both Article 29 and Article 38 are based on a chain of responsibilities. For a company of this size, this means that the contractual agreements with suppliers must be a direct translation of this legal division: what the manufacturer supplies, what the importer adds themselves, and what happens if either of them does not.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations come up repeatedly in practice in purchasing contracts that are not tailored to these obligations.

A purchasing contract often covers price, delivery time and product quality, but says nothing about the data needed for the digital product passport. If that data does not arrive or arrives too late, there is no contractual basis to do anything about it. What to do if a supplier does not provide the data is described under what you can do if your supplier does not provide the data.

A second situation: the garment is not made by a single manufacturer, but by multiple parties — for example weaving at one factory, manufacturing at another. The contract with the main supplier then often tacitly assumes that this party can provide all data, when in fact it cannot. Who provides which part of the data in such a situation is explained under the question of who provides which data if a garment is manufactured at multiple factories.

A third situation arises around certificates. A supplier sends a GOTS or OEKO-TEX certificate, but the contract says nothing about how that certificate relates to the data in the passport, or what happens if the certificate expires. How a certificate can be linked as evidence to the passport is described under the use of a GOTS or OEKO-TEX certificate as evidence in the digital product passport.

A fourth situation: the country of manufacture is not separately named in the contract, whilst this is data that may have to be included in the product passport. If the supplier or factory changes without notification, current data will be missing without anyone noticing.

A fifth situation arises with imports from outside the EU: the contract regulates the trading terms, but not who is responsible for providing product passport data at the moment of import. What the product passport means for imports from outside the EU is explained in what the product passport means for imports of clothing and textiles from outside the European Union.

What you can record

In a purchase contract with a manufacturer or intermediary, a number of matters can be included that support the supply of product passport data:

• A data schedule setting out exactly which data the supplier provides, in which format and at which point in the production process — aligned with the overview of data requested from a supplier.
• A delivery date for data, separate from the delivery date of the goods, so that data is not requested only upon arrival of the shipment.
• A provision on updates, in case a supplier, subcontractor, facility or raw material changes.
• A reference to certificates that serve as substantiation, including their period of validity and what happens when certificates expire.
• An agreement on liability for incorrect or missing data, in line with the allocation of responsibilities in Article 29 and Article 38.
• A provision on verification, such as the right to have documentation verified or to conduct an audit at the supplier; see also the explanation on having a supplier audited abroad for the product passport.

For companies that do not yet know whether these obligations apply to their products, it is advisable first to check whether the digital product passport applies to their own clothing and textiles, before tightening contractual arrangements.