must I have my supplier abroad inspected for the product passport

What you must do concretely

What is expected of you

The ESPR does not include a separate article that speaks of "supplier audits". What the regulation does regulate is that the data in the product passport is correct and that the person placing the product on the market — brand or importer — is responsible for that. How that certainty is achieved is not prescribed. An audit is therefore a possible means, not a legal obligation in itself.

Ensuring accurate data

Article 39 of the ESPR addresses the test, measurement and calculation methods used to demonstrate that a product meets the requirements. That article says nothing about who controls the supplier, but it does make clear that underlying data must be traceable and methodically substantiated. For a company of 10 to 100 employees, this primarily means there must be a way to show where a figure or claim comes from — not that an auditor must necessarily visit.

Ensuring the product passport is not circumvented or undermined

Article 40 focuses on preventing circumvention and deterioration of the performance stated in the product passport. This indirectly relates to suppliers: if a supplier changes composition or process in the meantime without reporting it, the product passport can become factually incorrect without the brand noticing. In practical terms, this translates to the question of whether there is an agreement that changes are reported, and not automatically into an audit obligation.

Import and customs control

Article 15 addresses customs controls on the digital product passport upon import. For companies importing clothing and textiles from outside the EU, this means that customs can check upon entry whether the product passport is present and accessible. This is a check on the end result — the product passport itself — not on the production process at the supplier. More information on this is described on the page on what the product passport means when importing from outside the European Union.

Obligations of the importer

Article 29 describes the obligations of importers, including verifying whether the manufacturer has established the required information and whether the product passport is present. That "verification" is an active role: the importer cannot simply assume that everything is in order, but must be able to substantiate that. For an importing company of limited size, this is often the most concrete point of reference: there must be some form of control, but the regulation leaves open whether that is a document review, a sample check, or an audit.

Where things go wrong in practice

The product passport is seen as a supplier problem. A brand draws up the questionnaire, sends it to the manufacturer, and assumes from that point on that the answer is correct. Without any form of verification, it remains unclear whether the supplier has provided the correct fibre composition, origin or test results.

Certificates are adopted without scrutiny. A supplier sends a GOTS or OEKO-TEX certificate, and it is copied literally to the passport without checking whether the certificate is still valid or actually applies to the delivered batch. On the page about linking a GOTS or OEKO-TEX certificate to the passport you will find where that does and does not help.

Changes at the manufacturer are not reported. A factory switches yarn supplier or assembly location, but does not report it because there is no agreement requiring it to do so. The passport then continues to show the old, no longer accurate, picture.

When multiple manufacturers are involved, confusion arises about who supplies what. When weaving, dyeing and assembly take place at different parties, it is not always clear to the brand who is responsible for which part of the data, and who should therefore be contacted in the event of an error. This is explained in more detail on the page about a garment that is made by multiple manufacturers.

At import, it is discovered too late that data is missing. An importer only notices during customs inspection that the passport is not complete, whereas article 29 specifically asks for this to have been checked beforehand.

What you can record

• An overview of which supplier provides which part of the data, especially for a product that is made through multiple manufacturers — see the question who supplies which data at multiple manufacturers.
• A fixed list of data that is requested from each supplier, so that nothing depends on what a supplier happens to send; a useful starting point is the page about which data you request from your clothing and textile supplier.
• A contractual agreement on the provision and keeping up to date of passport data, including a duty to report changes in composition or process — detailed on the page about agreements in the purchasing contract.
• A procedure for testing supplied data before it goes into the passport, for example through sampling or comparison with previous batches; see the page about checking data for accuracy.
• An established procedure for the event that a supplier fails to provide data, provides it late, or provides it incompletely, so that no passport is published on the basis of a gap in the information — see what to do if the supplier does not provide the data.
• A file per certificate with validity period and scope, so that a GOTS or OEKO-TEX statement is not forwarded to the passport without verification.

An audit can be part of such a procedure, but the regulation does not require that step by name and title. What counts is that a company can demonstrate that it has reasonably checked whether the supplied data is correct — with an audit, with document review, or with another approach that fits the size and risk of its own supply chain.