What happens if I don't have a product passport for my clothing and textiles?
No legal obligation yet, so no breach
As long as a digital product passport is not mandatory for clothing and textiles, there is no breach if you do not have one. The obligation comes from the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) and will be specified for each product group via a delegated act. For clothing and textiles, that act does not yet exist. Once it does exist and becomes applicable, the picture changes: a product that then comes onto the market without a passport is a product that does not comply with a binding requirement, and this falls under the ordinary enforcement regime for product conformity, as laid down in Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. "Doing nothing" therefore has two very different meanings: today it is effectively doing nothing without consequence, later it is doing nothing in the face of a binding obligation.
Which products this will affect, and which will not
This future obligation will affect clothing and textile products that fall under the first delegated act, and the ESPR work plan explicitly names clothing with eighty percent or more textile fibres as the first category. Other textile products may follow later, but are not fixed now. This section therefore does not cover general labelling obligations, nor other ESPR product groups such as electronics or furniture, nor obligations that already arise from other legislation separately from the digital product passport. It is specifically about what happens with the absence of a passport once that passport becomes mandatory for textiles.
A date is not yet confirmed
There is no confirmed date for the passport obligation for clothing and textiles to take effect. What is confirmed: the European Commission expects the delegated act for this category in 2027, with clothing of eighty percent or more textile fibres first. Until the act is published, no obligation applies, and until the act becomes applicable after publication, no obligation applies either. This platform monitors this date and will update the page as soon as the act is published and contains a concrete date of application.
What this means for those planning ahead now
The first step is to check whether your own range falls within the first category, i.e. clothing with a high proportion of textile fibres; for that segment, the obligation is most likely to apply first. The second step is not to wait to start gathering the underlying data — fibre composition, origin, production chain — because that data will be needed once a passport is mandatory, and it will not materialise by itself. The third step is to understand what changes once the obligation takes effect: a product without a passport is then a non-conforming product, and market surveillance authorities will have instruments available under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 to respond to this within their powers on market surveillance and product conformity. The fourth step is to pay attention to something else besides simply "not having a passport": Article 40 of the ESPR addresses the prevention of circumvention and deterioration of performance, which means that a structure that does produce a passport but circumvents the underlying requirements or artificially worsens the product's performance is also subject to surveillance. In other words: having the passport itself is not the only point of attention, the way it comes about matters too.
What this is based on
That there is currently no violation follows from the simple fact that the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) makes concrete requirements for a product category applicable only via a delegated act, and this does not yet exist for textiles. That future obligations may have consequences for non-compliant products follows from the general enforcement framework of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and product compliance, which applies to products falling under EU product legislation — ESPR obligations for textiles will become part of this as soon as they apply. That circumvention and artificial adjustment of performance are specifically mentioned follows from Article 40 of the ESPR, which is specifically designed to prevent constructions that undermine the purpose of the legislation.
Anyone already engaged with this subject can do the most by testing their own product category against the first category in the work plan (clothing with eighty percent or more textile fibres), getting the basic data on fibre composition and production chain in order, and monitoring this page for the moment when the delegated act is published — from that moment the concrete date and what will then apply are set out here.
What this is based on
- Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (market surveillance and product compliance)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), Article 40 (prevention of circumvention and deterioration of performance)
The regulation itself is available on EUR-Lex. We provide references for each statement; you do not need to take our word for it.
What you must do concretely
Once the delegated act for clothing and textiles is published and the obligation takes effect, a product passport changes from "something we are still working on" to a condition for placing or keeping the product on the EU market. Anyone who has not arranged anything by that time not only faces a risk of fines — there are also practical consequences that come sooner than a fine. This article describes what is at stake in most cases, and what can be done about it before that point is reached.
What is expected of you
A product without a valid passport may not be placed on the market or kept on the market
The ESPR links the product passport to the placing of the product on the market. Without a valid passport, one of the conditions that a product must meet in order to be traded is missing. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this concretely means that a collection ready for shipment can remain on hold until the data carrier and the underlying data are in order. This does not only affect new collections: existing stock can also come to a standstill as a result.
Market surveillance can intervene in the case of a product without a passport
Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 provides supervisory authorities with tools to check whether products meet the applicable requirements, and to intervene when they do not. For a company, this means that an inspection — for example at a customs inspection, a marketplace inspection or a spot check — can lead to questions about the passport that must be answered at that time. Anyone who does not have a file at that point must reconstruct it afterwards, often under time pressure.
Circumvention or deterioration of data is separately identified
Article 40 of the ESPR addresses the prevention of circumvention of the rules and of deterioration of the performance that the passport should represent. In practice, this means that it is not only about "do we have a passport", but also about whether the data in it were correct at the time of placing on the market and thereafter. A passport that exists but displays incorrect or outdated information is not automatically a solution for the lack of a passport — it can be a problem in its own right.
The obligation lies with a role, not with a name on the sign
Who exactly is responsible for the passport depends on the position in the chain: manufacturer, importer, distributor or brand can each have a different role. A company that assumes that "the other party will arrange this" runs the risk that no one actually does. It is therefore worthwhile to establish this in advance who is responsible for the product passport for clothing and textiles, instead of discovering it only when a supervisory authority asks the question.
Where things go wrong in practice
The collection is already produced before the passport is discussed. Production and procurement often run months ahead of sales, and the passport is not discussed until the goods are already in transit. At that point, there is little room to request missing data from the manufacturer.
No one in the chain feels responsible for the passport. With private label and own-brand sales, it is not always clear whether the client, the producer or the importer supplies the data. Anyone selling here under their own brand can arrange this in advance by reading what obligations are involved, and anyone having a collection made under their own label is well advised to establish who in that process puts together the passport.
The manufacturer is outside the EU and does not respond to data requests. When purchasing outside the Union, a situation regularly arises in which the European party is indeed obliged to provide the passport, but is dependent on a manufacturer who is not accustomed to these requirements or does not respond in time. Clarity is needed here in advance about who takes this on.
A marketplace or intermediary assumes that the supplier has already arranged it. When selling via a platform or through wholesale, the presence of a passport is sometimes simply assumed, without anyone actually having verified it.
The data in the passport no longer match after a change to the product. An alteration in fibre composition, dye or production location that is not reflected in the passport results in a passport that exists but no longer corresponds to the product — with the risk that this is seen as circumvention or degradation.
What you can record
To prevent the absence of a passport from becoming a problem when it is least welcome, it is useful to establish a number of matters in writing beforehand:
- A division of roles per collection or product line, stating who acts as manufacturer, importer or brand according to the ESPR — to be determined with the help of the question of whether you are an importer or manufacturer.
- Contractual agreements with the manufacturer on the timely delivery of product data, with a clear point in the production process by which that data must be received.
- An overview of your own role as distributor, trader or wholesale, including what needs to be verified in that context — see the obligations of a distributor or trader and the role of a wholesale dealer.
- A fixed procedure for sales via a marketplace, so that it is clear beforehand who provides the passport rather than discovering it afterwards — see what selling via an online marketplace means.
- A file per product line with the underlying data, so that in the event of an inspection everything does not have to be reconstructed afterwards.
- A check as to whether your own products are subject to the obligation at all and from when, to prevent unnecessary haste or unwarranted complacency — see whether the product passport applies to your textiles and when the obligation comes into force.
Together, these documents do not guarantee that everything is in order, but they do form a basis with which a company can demonstrate that it has dealt consciously with the obligation — something that differs from a situation in which the passport has simply been forgotten.
This is not legal advice. This page provides general information about the regulations that this platform covers. We are not familiar with your situation. If you are in doubt about your own case, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.
Written with AI based on the sources above, checked by a human on 2026-08-22. Is something wrong? Let us know — corrections are given priority.