what fine can I receive if I do not have a product passport for my clothing
The sanction level is not yet fixed, but the authority to enforce it is
Currently, there is no European-level established fine for a missing product passport on clothing or textiles, and it cannot be otherwise: the obligation itself does not yet apply. The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) governs manufacturers' obligations regarding the product passport in Article 27, but the concrete implementation for clothing and textiles — including the date on which the obligation enters into force — is set out in a delegated act that does not yet exist. What is established, however, is the system behind it: market surveillance authorities in the EU Member States are given the authority under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 to remove products that do not comply with the rules from the market, have them recalled or have them provided with the correct documentation. How the national legislator translates that into fine amounts has not yet been published.
For clothing and textiles, this applies in phases, not immediately for everyone alike
This question arises at the moment when the product passport actually becomes mandatory for a particular product, and that moment is not on the same date for the entire textile sector. The ESPR work plan names clothing with eighty percent or more textile fibres as the first category to be covered; other textile products will follow later. As long as the delegated act for a product category has not been published, there is no enforceable obligation for that category to provide a passport. This section is therefore not about a fine that can already be imposed, nor about other obligations that exist independently of the passport (such as labelling of fibre composition) — those have their own rules and their own enforcement. Those who wish to know whether the digital product passport applies to a specific assortment, will find a separate explanation for that.
The date is not yet fixed; until then, there is no passport obligation to breach
There is no fixed date yet on which the product passport becomes mandatory for clothing and textiles, and therefore there is also no date on which sanctions for a missing passport can actually take effect. The European Commission is working, according to the ESPR work plan 2025-2030, on a delegated act expected in 2027, with clothing of eighty percent or more textile fibres as the first category. As long as that act has not been published, the underlying obligation does not yet exist in enforceable form for textiles — the ESPR is a framework regulation that must be further specified per product group. As soon as the date is fixed, this page will be updated. Until then, the most concrete question is not "which fine", but when exactly the obligation enters into force.
What to do: first determine the role, then the risks associated with it
The practical sequence does not begin with the sanction risk, but with the question of who bears which obligation once the passport becomes mandatory — because this also determines who is the point of contact for a supervisory authority. A first step is to check whether a company is regarded as an importer or as a manufacturer under the ESPR, because these two roles carry different obligations. Those selling clothing under their own brand while production is outsourced would do well to look at what obligations come with operating an own brand, and those working with a manufacturer outside the EU will find the points to watch in the section on a manufacturer located outside the European Union. Distributors, wholesalers and marketplace sellers each have their own position in the supply chain, with their own control obligations towards the manufacturer or importer — those obligations are already foreseeable now, even though the entry date is not yet fixed. Those who have this overview also know better where in the supply chain a missing passport will first become visible during an inspection: at import, at distribution or at the point of sale to the consumer. A broader outline of what practically changes if a passport is missing is provided in what happens if nothing is done.
The basis: ESPR obligations, market surveillance via Regulation 2019/1020
This explanation rests on two layers of legislation that together determine how enforcement will work. Article 27 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) sets out the obligations manufacturers must fulfil regarding the product passport, including keeping the correct information available via the data carrier. Article 40 of the same regulation addresses the prevention of circumvention and deterioration of performance, indicating that the legislator is also mindful of attempts to evade the obligation. The implementation and enforcement of such product rules proceeds via Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance: that regulation provides national market surveillance authorities with instruments such as recall actions and market withdrawal, but leaves concrete penalty amounts to the Member States. For textiles specifically, the delegated act that establishes the obligation in substance and timing is lacking, and therefore the basis to cite a concrete penalty amount now is also absent.
Those wishing to prepare now can best start by determining their own role in the chain — manufacturer, importer, private label commissioner, distributor or marketplace — and from there assess what data will later be needed to compile a passport. Once the delegated act for clothing containing eighty per cent or more textile fibres has been published, this page will be updated with the actual date and the penalty rules that follow from it.
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)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), Article 27 (obligations of manufacturers)
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
What is expected of you
The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) does not itself regulate in a separate article which penalty applies to which infringement — that is left to the Member States. What is established at European level is the system by which market surveillance authorities inspect products and take action: this is set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. In practice, for the product passport this concerns a few obligations that can apply alongside each other.
Ensuring the product itself complies
Article 27 of the ESPR establishes that the manufacturer is responsible for the conformity of the product with the applicable ecological requirements. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means that not only the existence of a passport counts, but also whether its content is correct. A passport with incorrect fibre composition or missing repair information is in the eyes of a market surveillance authority just as much a defect as a product without a passport. Who is precisely responsible for this within the chain depends on the role a company plays — see who is responsible for the product passport of clothing and textiles.
Actually keeping the passport available
Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 gives market surveillance authorities the power to check whether the information that must accompany a product is actually accessible. In practice, this means that a QR code pointing to a dead link, or a passport that no longer loads after a server failure, falls into the same category as a completely missing passport. For companies working with an external party for hosting, it is a point to note to establish who is responsible if the data carrier is temporarily unavailable.
No circumvention or deterioration of the information provided
Article 40 of the ESPR prohibits practices aimed at circumventing the rules or causing a product's performance to deteriorate compared to what has been tested and reported. This touches on situations in which a company creates a passport that differs from the actual composition or properties of the product — for instance because a supplier changes the fibre composition without this being updated in the passport. For a mid-sized company, this means the passport is not a one-off exercise, but something that moves along with changes to the product.
Cooperating with market surveillance
Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 requires economic operators to cooperate with supervisory authorities, including by providing documentation demonstrating that a product is in conformity. For a company without a legal department, this primarily means that there must be someone who knows where the underlying data for the passport comes from and who can respond if a supervisory authority asks about it.
Where things go wrong in practice
A few situations come up relatively often.
A clothing brand sells clothing under its own name that is made by an external manufacturer, and assumes that the manufacturer will handle the passport. Without a clear agreement, it remains unclear who provides which part of the data, and the passport is not created or is created too late. This situation is covered in more detail in I sell clothing and textiles under my own brand — what obligations do I have.
An importer sources collections from a manufacturer outside the EU and assumes that the foreign party is responsible for the passport because it made the product. Within the ESPR system, however, responsibility often shifts to whoever places the product on the market in the EU. What this concretely means is described on my manufacturer is located outside the European Union — who arranges the product passport then.
A private label collection is assembled via multiple intermediaries — a wholesaler, an importer, a brand owner — and ultimately no one feels responsible for the passport. This type of fragmentation means in practice that the passport is simply not created, even though everyone thought someone else was doing it.
An online marketplace offers products from third-party sellers without checking whether a passport is present, assuming this is exclusively the seller's responsibility. Depending on the role the marketplace plays, there may be an obligation here nonetheless — see what does the product passport mean if I sell clothing and textiles via an online marketplace.
A distributor sells inventory that was already in the warehouse before the obligation came into force, without checking whether new deliveries from the same supplier do fall under the obligation. This creates a mix of products with and without a passport within one assortment, without this happening intentionally.
What you can record
For companies that want to maintain control of these obligations, it is practical to document a number of things in writing:
- A division of roles in the chain — who supplies which data for the passport, and who is ultimately responsible for publication. This is particularly relevant in the case of private label and when working with manufacturers outside the EU.
- A contact point at the supplier or manufacturer in case a supervisory authority requests underlying documentation.
- A procedure for changes to the product — for example an adjusted fibre composition — so that the passport is updated and does not lag behind the actual product information.
- A check on the functioning of the QR data carrier, especially when using an external hosting party, so that a technical fault is not mistaken for a missing passport.
- An overview of which products in the assortment fall under the obligation and which do not, so that older inventory is not accidentally confused with new deliveries.
For those who do not yet know exactly in which role all this falls — manufacturer, importer, distributor or something in between — it is advisable to establish this first. See for this am I an importer or manufacturer according to the ESPR and, for those who resell inventory without producing themselves, what obligations does a distributor or trader of clothing and textiles have.
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 2026-09-05. Is something not right? Let us know — corrections are given priority.