E-COMMERCE GUIDE

Selling Online with a Digital Product Passport: Duties for Brands, Retailers and Marketplaces

Published 25.09.2026 · Reading time ~5 min · by Lior Gabriel Graetz · LG Fashion Labs

1. Who is who in the ESPR

A dealer is "a distributor or any other natural or legal person that offers products for sale, hire or hire purchase, or that displays products, to end users in the course of a commercial activity, including through distance selling; and includes any natural or legal person that puts a product into service in the course of a commercial activity" (Article 2(55)). A provider of an online marketplace is a separate actor: "a provider of an intermediary service using an online interface which allows customers to conclude distance contracts with economic operators for the sale of products covered by delegated acts adopted pursuant to Article 4" (Article 2(54)). Dealers and fulfilment service providers are economic operators under Article 2(46); marketplace providers have their own article, Article 35. A fulfilment service provider, as defined in Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, offers, "in the course of commercial activity, at least two of the following services: warehousing, packaging, addressing and dispatching, without having ownership of the products involved", excluding "postal services as defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council", "parcel delivery services as defined in point 2 of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2018/644 of the European Parliament and of the Council" and "any other postal services or freight transport services" (Article 3(11)).

2. The brand: passing the passport to sellers

Products can only be placed on the market if a DPP is available (Article 9(1)). The operator placing a product on the market must "provide dealers and providers of online marketplaces with a digital copy of the data carrier or the unique product identifier, as relevant", so that they can make it accessible to potential customers who cannot physically access the product. The digital copy or a webpage link is due "free of charge promptly and in any event within five working days of receiving a request to do so" (Article 10(3)).

3. The seller: dealers and online shops

Dealers must "ensure that the digital product passport is easily accessible for customers and potential customers, including in the event of distance selling" (Article 31(2)). Recital 67 adds: "Dealers should comply with that obligation every time a product is offered for sale, hire or hire purchase."

When a product covered by a delegated act is offered at a distance, Article 36(1) requires every economic operator to ensure that the offer "clearly and visibly provides at least the following information": the manufacturer's name, trade name or trade mark with a postal and electronic address; where the manufacturer is not established in the Union, "the name, postal and electronic address and telephone number of the economic operator established in the Union" (as defined in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020); and "information allowing the identification of the product, including a picture of it, its type and any other product identifier". Under Article 36(2), operators must also be able to name their suppliers and customers, with quantities and exact models, for 10 years unless the delegated act says otherwise, and provide this "within 15 days of receipt of a request by the market surveillance authority".

4. Marketplaces

Article 35(1) applies Articles 11 and 30 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act, "for the purposes of this Regulation". Article 11 requires a single point of contact for authorities. Under Article 30, a platform allowing consumers to conclude distance contracts with traders must, before a trader may use it, obtain the trader's contact, identification and payment details and a self-certification committing to offer only products that comply with Union law.

In addition, providers of online marketplaces "shall cooperate with the market surveillance authorities, at the request of those authorities and in specific cases" to eliminate or mitigate the non-compliance of a product offered through their services (Article 35(1)). Member States must give those authorities the power, for all products covered by a delegated act, "to order a provider of an online marketplace to act against one or more specific items of content referring to a non-compliant product, including by removing them" (Article 35(2)); recital 72 says such powers apply "in all necessary and proportionate cases, including for products presenting a less than serious risk". Each provider must "establish a single contact point for the purposes of direct communication with Member States' market surveillance authorities" (Article 35(3)). Fulfilment service providers must ensure that "the conditions during warehousing, packaging, addressing or dispatching do not jeopardise the products' compliance with that delegated act" (Article 33).

5. What the Commission says

The Commission's DPP FAQ says that "Online marketplaces will be required to make the DPP easily accessible on the product page, allowing consumers to review its details before making a purchase" (question 14) and, on enforcement, that penalties are set by Member States and, per ESPR Article 74, "must be 'effective, proportionate and dissuasive'" — applying "not only to the manufacturers who do not comply with their obligations but also to other economic operators or stakeholders, such as online platforms" (question 32). Its textile page states: "The DPP will be accessible both in online points of sale and through a data carrier on the product itself, such as a QR code, providing access to the ecodesign information and, for authorities, to the conformity assessment information required under the applicable legislation."

6. Who must do what

7. Reading these rules together

The ESPR text places the duty to display the passport on dealers (Article 31(2)) and gives marketplaces a digital copy "to allow them to make the data carrier or the unique product identifier accessible" (Article 10(3)(a)). Article 35, the marketplace article, lists cooperation, removal orders and a contact point; it contains no display duty of its own. The Commission's FAQ describes a display duty for marketplaces in different terms.

A brand selling through its own online shop offers products to end users by distance selling, which is the ESPR's definition of a dealer (Article 2(55)). The seller-side duties in Articles 31 and 36 therefore apply to it in addition to its duties as the operator placing the product on the market; Article 10(3) is directed at third-party sellers and marketplaces.

None of this applies to textiles yet: the articles above attach to products covered by a delegated act. No adoption date has been fixed for the textile (apparel) delegated act. The Commission's Digital Product Passport pages list adoption, both marked indicative, for Q3–Q4 2027 (DPP timeline, together with aluminium and tyres) and for Q4 2027 (textile-apparel page). Article 4(4) provides that a delegated act's date of application shall not be earlier than 18 months from its entry into force, except in "duly justified" cases; for an act adopted in the second half of 2027 that means 2029 at the earliest (our calculation, not a date the Commission has published). The texts reviewed do not yet specify how the passport must be shown at the point of sale beyond Article 36(1) (Article 9(2)(e) leaves this to the delegated act), which data carrier textiles will use, or how a marketplace will check that a listing carries a registered passport.

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products (ESPR). Cited: Articles 2(46), 2(54), 2(55), 2(56), 4(4), 9(1), 9(2)(e), 10(3), 31(2), 33, 35, 36, 74; recitals 67 and 72.
• Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance and compliance of products, consolidated version of 12 August 2026. Cited: Articles 3(11) and 4(2).
• Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services (Digital Services Act). Cited: Articles 11 and 30, as applied by ESPR Article 35(1).
• European Commission, Digital Product Passport: indicative DPP timeline.
• European Commission, Frequently Asked Questions on the Digital Product Passport (DPP): questions 14 and 32 (question numbering on this live, continuously-updated page as of 29.09.2026).
• European Commission, Textile Apparel and the Digital Product Passport (DPP).

All sources were accessed and verified directly on EUR-Lex, the European Commission's Digital Product Passport FAQ and the Digital Services Act text on 25 September 2026, and re-verified live a second time on 29 September 2026 (the Commission FAQ's question numbering had shifted since first publication — citations updated accordingly); the statements on the timing of adoption of the textile (apparel) delegated act were re-checked against the Commission's Digital Product Passport pages on 13 October 2026. This is general information, not legal, financial or investment advice.