ESPR (EU) 2024/1781: Sustainable Products Reg

Author Hugues Orgitello Last updated 30 August 2026 ~17 min read

Guide - ESPR Regulation

Adopted on 13 June 2024, published in the Official Journal on 28 June and entered into force on 18 July 2024, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, known as ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation), marks a step change in the European law of ecodesign. It widens the scope of the former Directive 2009/125/EC, the ErP Directive, which addressed only energy-related products, to almost all physical goods placed on the Union market. As a cornerstone of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan, ESPR establishes a cross-cutting framework applied product by product through delegated acts staggered until 2030. This guide sets out the scope, the twelve axes of ecodesign requirements, the mechanics of the Digital Product Passport (DPP), the priority delegated-act schedule, and the interplay with the Battery Regulation, the Cyber Resilience Act and the USB-C Common Charger Directive.

Why Directive 2009/125/EC is being replaced

Directive 2009/125/EC, the ErP Directive on Energy-related Products, has provided the ecodesign framework for fifteen years, centred on products that consume or affect energy: light bulbs, electric motors, household appliances, water heaters, transformers, computers. Its scope was twofold: products directly using energy and products affecting in-service consumption (windows, taps, for instance). Three limits led the Commission to propose a more ambitious replacement regulation.

The first limit is the energy perimeter. The ErP Directive could not, given its legal architecture, address a textile, a piece of furniture, a detergent or a raw material, even though these products account for a substantial share of the environmental impact of European consumption. To cover them, the Commission either had to extend the scope via parallel regimes or build a new framework.

The second limit is the energy efficiency only logic. The ErP Directive mainly regulates in-service energy performance, with sporadic coverage of durability or reparability (introduced in the more recent measures on screens and mobile phones). A full circular approach requires that durability, reparability, recycled content, recyclability, presence of substances of concern, and carbon and environmental footprints be integrated within a single regulatory tool.

The third limit is the absence of downstream transparency. The ErP Directive yields an energy label for the consumer, but no structured digital register travelling with the product throughout its life cycle and accessible to repair, refurbishment and recycling actors. The Digital Product Passport, the keystone feature of ESPR, fills this gap.

ESPR joins the CE marking family: any product covered by an ESPR delegated act becomes a harmonised product under the New Legislative Framework. For consistency with other CE regimes, see the CE marking guide and the detailed CE procedure.

ESPR vs ErP: the scope expansion

The table below summarises the main differences in scale and logic between the 2009 ErP Directive and the 2024 ESPR Regulation. The transition is not instantaneous: as long as no ESPR delegated act has replaced a given ErP implementing measure, the latter remains in force.

Dimension	ErP Directive 2009/125/EC	ESPR Regulation 2024/1781
Legal instrument	Directive (national transposition)	Regulation (directly applicable)
Scope	Energy-related products	Almost all physical goods
Main axis	In-service energy efficiency	Full life cycle, twelve axes
Transparency tool	Energy label	Digital Product Passport (DPP)
Adoption mechanism	Sectoral implementing measures	Sectoral delegated acts
Unsold-goods destruction	No ban	Annex VII prohibition from 2026: apparel, clothing accessories, footwear
Upstream due diligence	Absent	Integrated via DPP and substances
Single-market alignment	Variable through transposition	Direct harmonisation

Article 79(1) of ESPR repealed Directive 2009/125/EC with effect from 18 July 2024, but kept named provisions of it alive transitionally. For nineteen product groups, among them computers, servers and data storage products, external power supplies, power transformers, imaging equipment and photovoltaic panels, those provisions continue to apply only until 31 December 2026. A further limb runs to 31 December 2030, but only where amendments are needed to address technical issues in existing implementing measures. The implementing measures themselves (lighting, appliances, motors) stay in force until they are repealed or declared obsolete, so the practical coexistence is with the measures, not with the Directive.

The twelve axes of ecodesign requirements (Article 5)

Article 5 of the Regulation lists the axes along which the Commission may, by delegated act, set requirements for a given product group. This catalogue defines the regulatory breadth of ESPR: each delegated act may, in principle, deploy any or all of these axes depending on the priorities for the targeted product.

1. Durability: ability of the product to perform its function over a defined period.
2. Reliability: probability of failure-free operation over a defined period.
3. Reusability: ability for a new use after a first life.
4. Upgradability: capacity to integrate higher-performing components or software.
5. Reparability: ease and cost of repair, spare parts availability, access to instructions.
6. Maintenance and refurbishment: industrial refurbishment, reconditioning.
7. Presence of substances of concern: SVHC, REACH Annex XVII, candidate substances.
8. Energy and other resource consumption: water, critical raw materials.
9. Recycled content: share of materials originating from post-consumer recycling.
10. Remanufacturing and recyclability: design for disassembly and sorting.
11. Carbon and environmental footprint: declaration following the PEF methodology.
12. Waste generation: minimisation of manufacturing waste and end-of-life waste.

Article 5(1) is a closed list of product aspects; it is Annex I, setting the product parameters, that may be supplemented as appropriate. The Commission cannot add an axis, but the Annex I chapeau lets it work from parameters "supplemented by others" where necessary, so a delegated act can bring in product-specific parameters under an existing axis (for example, the absence of DRM hindering repair, or backward compatibility of spare parts over a defined horizon, both under reparability).

Axis hierarchy by product group

Not every axis applies to every product. For a textile, durability and presence of substances of concern dominate. For an electronic product, reparability, upgradability and carbon footprint take priority. The applicable delegated act selects the relevant axes for the group, sets quantitative thresholds, and lays down the test and declaration methodology.

The Digital Product Passport (DPP)

The DPP is the most visible cross-cutting innovation of ESPR. Defined in Articles 9 to 14, it is a digital record attached to each product, or to each batch, that aggregates the data required by the applicable delegated act. The product's unique identifier is carried by a physical data carrier: QR code, two-dimensional barcode or any other machine-readable device.

DPP structure

ESPR imposes no fixed structure. Annex III sets a menu of elements from which each delegated act selects what a given product group must or may carry, and Article 9(2)(f) leaves it to that act to name which actors see which data. The layers below are a working model for organising the data, not a statutory floor.

Layer	Data type	Access
Identification	Unique product identifier, unique manufacturer identifier, model references	Public
Composition	Materials, substances of concern, declared recycled content	Public or restricted depending on the act
Performance	Carbon footprint, durability, efficiency class	Public
Repair	Disassembly instructions, available spare parts, authorised repairer contacts	Public
Recycling	End-of-life procedure, collection points, specific treatment	Authorised actors
Conformity	EU declaration of conformity, test reports	Market surveillance authorities

The passport data must be accurate, complete and up to date (Article 9(1)); which actors may create or update them is set for each product group by the delegated act (Article 9(2)(g)). Storage is not a choice: Article 11(c) requires the passport to be held by the economic operator responsible for creating it or by a digital product passport service provider, and Article 10(4) obliges the operator, when placing the product on the market, to lodge a back-up copy with such a service provider. The passport must remain available for the period set by the delegated act, which under Article 9(2)(i) is at least the expected lifetime of the product, and must survive the operator's insolvency or cessation of activity (Article 11(e)). Separately, Article 13 required the Commission to set up, by 19 July 2026, a registry holding at least the unique identifiers; the operator uploads them and receives a unique registration identifier, and access is limited to the Commission, competent national authorities and customs.

DPP, battery passport and other passports

The ESPR DPP is not the only European digital passport. Article 77(1) of the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 requires a battery passport from 18 February 2027, but only for LMT batteries, industrial batteries above 2 kWh and electric-vehicle batteries. Portable batteries, including the cell in a smartphone or a laptop, get no battery passport; from the same date they carry the QR code and marking required by Article 13(6). The two passports coexist: an e-bike will have an ESPR DPP for the bike as a whole (frame, drivetrain, control electronics) and a separate battery passport for the lithium-ion cell it carries. Forthcoming ESPR delegated acts on electronic products are expected to clarify interoperability between passports: cross-reference, shared identifier, or aggregating structure. For details of the battery passport, see the Battery Regulation guide.

The ESPR Working Plan 2025-2030

The Regulation does not directly list the products subject to requirements. Article 18 provides for the adoption of a working plan by the Commission, identifying priority groups on the basis of a multi-criteria analysis: environmental improvement potential, intra-Union trade volume, readiness of technical data, supply-chain viability.

The first working plan covers the 2025-2030 period and was published by the Commission in April 2025. Chemicals, detergents, paints, lubricants and footwear are named in Article 18(5) of the Regulation but are not in this first plan; the Commission gave its justification in section 2.2.3 of the Communication. The dates below are the plan's own indicative adoption years, not dates of application.

Measure	Scope	Indicative adoption
Textiles, apparel	Garments	2027
Tyres	Tyres	2027
Furniture	Furniture	2028
Mattresses	Mattresses	2029
Iron and steel	Intermediate product	2026
Aluminium	Intermediate product	2027
Reparability, horizontal	Scope to be set by the preparatory study, likely consumer electronics and small household appliances	2027
Recycled content and recyclability, horizontal	Electrical and electronic equipment	2029
Energy-related products	Sixteen groups carried over from the 2022-2024 plan, including displays (2027), mobile phones and tablets (end 2030), EV chargers (2028)	2026 to 2030

Delegated acts are adopted group by group under Article 290 TFEU and Article 72 of the Regulation, not by comitology: the Commission consults experts designated by each Member State, then notifies Parliament and Council, and the act enters into force only if neither objects within two months, extendable by a further two months. Comitology applies only to the Regulation's implementing acts, under Article 73. The adoption duration for an ESPR sectoral delegated act is generally several years from its listing in the working plan: stakeholder consultation, impact assessment, draft act, scrutiny by Parliament and Council, publication in the Official Journal, transition period for manufacturers.

General application schedule

Article 80 sets entry into force and Article 79 the repeal and transitional provisions; the dated obligations come from Articles 13, 24, 25 and 79. The milestones below provide the most stable reference points.

Date	Milestone
13 June 2024	Regulation adopted
28 June 2024	Published in the Official Journal
18 July 2024	Entry into force
April 2025	Publication of the ESPR Working Plan 2025-2030
31 December 2026	End of the Article 79(1)(a)(i) transition for nineteen energy-related product groups, including computers, servers, data storage, external power supplies, power transformers, imaging equipment and photovoltaic panels
19 July 2026	Prohibition on destroying unsold Annex VII goods: apparel, clothing accessories and footwear. Micro and small enterprises excluded; medium-sized enterprises from 19 July 2030
19 July 2030	Prohibition and Article 24 disclosure duty extend to medium-sized enterprises
2025-2030	Progressive adoption of delegated acts for priority product groups
Rolling	Substitution of ErP implementing measures by ESPR equivalents

The 2030 horizon is not the end of the process: the working plan will be renewed in successive cycles, and additional product groups will enter scope. Manufacturers must therefore maintain active monitoring of the draft delegated acts published by the Commission, and anticipate requirements as early as possible during the consultation phase.

To place this schedule in the broader trajectory (RED, CE, CRA, batteries), see the certification timeline guide.

Interplay with other European regimes

ESPR does not operate in isolation. It interlocks with a growing family of European acts, each addressing a specific dimension of the product.

ESPR and Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542

The Battery Regulation governs the battery itself: battery passport, carbon footprint, recycled content, due diligence, removable batteries for portables. ESPR governs the host product into which the battery is integrated. For an e-bike, the battery passport covers the LMT battery and the ESPR DPP covers the bike. For a smartphone the cell is a portable battery, so no battery passport arises; only the Article 13(6) QR code applies, and the ESPR DPP covers the phone (durability, reparability, software updates as a durability driver, disassembly, recyclability). The two passports coexist and the ESPR delegated act on electronics will define their articulation. For details of the battery passport, see the Battery Regulation guide.

ESPR and Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)

The CRA, Regulation (EU) 2024/2847, covers the cybersecurity of products with digital elements: vulnerability handling, security updates, disclosure. ESPR covers environmental sustainability. For a connected device, both regimes apply in parallel: an ESPR DPP and a CRA security support life cycle. A CRA obligation to provide security updates over the expected support duration can sit alongside an ESPR obligation to make spare parts available, with no normative conflict. For details of the CRA, see the Cyber Resilience Act guide.

ESPR and USB-C Common Charger Directive

Directive (EU) 2022/2380, the USB-C Common Charger Directive, mandates a harmonised charging connector for small and medium-sized portable electronic equipment. It addresses charging interface convergence; ESPR will address, via its electronics delegated act, reparability, upgradability and the passport for the complete device. The two add up without overlap: a smartphone placed on the European market after the entry into application of the ESPR electronics delegated act will have to combine a USB-C port, a removable battery under the Battery Regulation, and a DPP under ESPR. For details of USB-C, see the USB-C guide.

ESPR and Energy Labelling Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 on energy labelling remains applicable to the groups already covered (appliances, lighting). ESPR does not abolish the energy label: it complements it by linking it to the DPP, which gives access to richer information than the A to G classes alone. The Commission has stated its intention to harmonise the rating scale progressively between the energy label and ESPR axes to avoid duplicate declarations.

ESPR and REACH

REACH (Regulation (EC) 1907/2006) governs the placing of chemical substances on the market. ESPR mobilises the SVHC (Substances of Very High Concern) lists established under REACH and requires their declaration in the DPP where the applicable delegated act so provides. A REACH candidate substance above the 0.1 percent mass threshold in an article must, in addition to the REACH Article 33 information duty, be declared in the DPP of the finished product.

Due diligence and upstream transparency

Through the DPP and the associated declarations, ESPR introduces a requirement of supply-chain transparency that goes beyond conventional product compliance. The carbon footprint and recycled content axes require tracing back to upstream suppliers (raw materials, sub-assemblies, components) to gather verified data. For critical raw materials (cobalt, lithium, nickel, rare earths), ESPR itself says nothing about due diligence and does not mention the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive; the two regimes run in parallel rather than converging in the text. The lever ESPR does provide is Article 38: where the applicable delegated act says so, supply chain actors must give manufacturers, notified bodies and national authorities the relevant information they hold, free of charge and on request, or else let the manufacturer assess the supplied products and access the relevant documents or facilities. Until a delegated act invokes it, that leverage has to be written into the purchase contract.

For a European manufacturer integrating Asian components without PEF documentation, this imposes a traceable sourcing programme: add PEF, recycled content and SVHC requirements to the supplier specification, contractualise data delivery, and organise third-party verification.

Conformity assessment procedure and CE marking

ESPR falls into the CE marking family under the New Legislative Framework. Article 4(5) restricts each delegated act to one of two sources: module A, internal production control, as set out in Annex IV to ESPR itself, or one of modules B to H1 of Annex II to Decision 768/2008/EC (EU type examination B, conformity to type C, production quality assurance D, product quality assurance E, product verification F, unit verification G, full quality assurance H), adapted as the product requires. Modules A1 and A2 are not available.

Module	Summary	Third party required
A	Internal production control, ESPR Annex IV	No
B + C, C1, C2	EU type examination plus conformity to type	Yes (notified body)
D, D1	Production quality assurance	Yes
E, E1	Product quality assurance	Yes
F, F1	Product verification	Yes
G	Unit verification	Yes
H, H1	Full quality assurance	Yes

Responsibility lies with the manufacturer or its authorised representative in the Union. The chain of responsibilities extends to importers (Article 29), distributors (Article 30), dealers (Article 31) and providers of online marketplaces and online search engines (Article 35)" and, in the same paragraph, change "Responsibility lies with the manufacturer or its authorised representative in the Union." to "Responsibility lies with the manufacturer (Article 27) or its authorised representative in the Union (Article 28)., each with their own duties to verify conformity before making available. For the general module-selection logic, see the self-declaration vs notified body guide.

The economic operator then draws up the EU declaration of conformity and affixes the CE marking. Where the product falls under several harmonisation acts (ESPR, RED, EMC, low voltage, batteries), the single declaration cites all applicable acts.

Ban on destruction of unsold consumer goods

Article 25 introduces a novel provision: a ban on the destruction of unsold goods. Destruction covers landfilling, incineration and any other operation rendering the product permanently unusable, except for material recycling.

The prohibition enters into application on 19 July 2026 for the goods listed in Annex VII: apparel and clothing accessories (combined nomenclature 4203, 61, 62, 6504 and 6505) and footwear (6401 to 6405). Micro and small enterprises sit outside it entirely under Article 25(1), and Article 24(1) exempts them from the disclosure duty as well. Medium-sized enterprises come within both the prohibition and the disclosure duty on 19 July 2030. There is no six-year clock, and micro enterprises owe no annual declaration.

The Commission is empowered, by delegated act, to extend the ban to additional product groups if an impact assessment supports it. The first candidates referenced in the preparatory work are consumer electronics and toys.

For textile retailers, this ban requires a redesign of unsold-goods management: restocking, donation, sale on the secondary market, material recycling. Destruction remains permitted on grounds of health, safety or intellectual property protection, subject to declaration.

Practical impact on product designers

For a design office working today on a product that will fall under an ESPR delegated act, several parameters become structural from the specification phase onward. The list below sets out the main impacts identified for consumer electronics and ICT equipment.

1. Demountable architecture: design assemblies with standard screws or clips, avoid structural adhesives, provide clearly documented disassembly points. Reparability by an independent technician becomes a default requirement.
2. Upgradability: provide standardised interfaces (memory, storage, radio modules) so that hardware updates remain feasible during the support period. The logic extends beyond software.
3. PEF and recycled content data: incorporate, in the supplier specification, the obligation to provide environmental footprint and recycled content data per component. Components without data become a regulatory risk.
4. Substances of concern: maintain the SVHC list and the mapping of REACH-regulated substances in the product bill of materials. The DPP will require their declaration.
5. Identifier and data carrier: provide a physical location for the QR code or other carrier, readable throughout the product life. For a small-format electronic product, this is an industrialisation constraint to anticipate.
6. Technical documentation: structure the documentation to cover the relevant axes of Article 5 and allow updates to the DPP as the product evolves. Retention is generally ten years from the last placing on the market.
7. Spare parts and instructions: organise a programme to make spare parts and repair instructions available over a horizon defined by the delegated act (typically several years after production has ended).

For the full regulatory mapping (CE, RED, EMC, RoHS, REACH, WEEE), see the CE marking scope page. The spilma glossary lists the key terms (DPP, PEF, SVHC, ecodesign, ESPR working plan) with reference definitions.

Common pitfalls

Risk	Consequence	Action
Treating ESPR as immediate	Oversized programmes, premature mobilisation	Align with the real schedule: requirements activate via delegated acts, not at entry into force
Skipping the delegated-acts watch	Late discovery of requirements at market placement	Maintain active monitoring of draft delegated acts, follow consultations
Conflating ESPR with the CRA	Cybersecurity confused with environmental sustainability	Separate the ESPR product life cycle (sustainability) from the CRA support life cycle (vulnerabilities)
Forgetting the DPP at design stage	Late mechanical redesign to fit the data carrier	Provide for the QR code location at industrialisation stage
Conflating battery passport and ESPR DPP	Duplication or coverage gap in documentation	Map both passports separately, battery distinct from host product
Underestimating supplier-side data	PEF and recycled content data not collected	Contractualise data at the sourcing stage, from component RFQ onwards
Reading the Annex VII list as "all textiles"	Either a needless programme for household linen, or a missed obligation on leather goods and headgear	Check the actual commodity codes: 4203, 61, 62, 6504, 6505, 6401 to 6405

Penalties are set by each Member State, but the regulation requires that they be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. The first national transpositions provide for substantial administrative fines and market-removal measures. Market surveillance relies on Regulation (EU) 2019/1020.

See also

• Environmental compliance: what it asks of a product
• ErP / Ecodesign 2009/125/EC: product energy efficiency
• Energy Star: the US voluntary energy-efficiency program
• EU Ecolabel, PEF and LCA for electronic products
• Conflict minerals: Dodd-Frank, EU 2017/821, CMRT and EMRT

Working on ESPR scoping for an electronic product ahead of its delegated act for a real product? AESTECHNO can audit your design and certification plan. Get in touch →

Sources & references

1. Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishing a framework for setting ecodesign requirements , EUR-Lex eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1781/oj
2. European Commission, Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation page , European Commission environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/circular-economy/ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en
3. European Commission, ESPR Working Plan 2025-2030 , European Commission environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/circular-economy/ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en
4. Digital Product Passport, Commission information page , European Commission single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/digital-product-passport_en
5. Directive 2009/125/EC establishing a framework for ecodesign of energy-related products (ErP, repealed by ESPR Article 79(1) with effect from 18 July 2024, transitional provisions apply) , EUR-Lex eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2009/125/oj
6. Decision 768/2008/EC on a common framework for the marketing of products , EUR-Lex eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec/2008/768/oj