The authorised CBAM declarant carries legal responsibility for the declaration, including where the underlying emissions data came from a non-EU supplier. Responsibility does not transfer to the producer. Failure to surrender enough certificates attracts a penalty of EUR 100 per tonne of CO2e not covered, and the missing certificates must still be surrendered.
Data flows from the producing installation, but liability does not follow it. From 2026 only a party holding authorised CBAM declarant status may import CBAM goods into the Union, and the declaration is that party’s.
Where liability sits
| Party | Position |
|---|---|
| Authorised CBAM declarant | Legally responsible for the annual declaration and for surrendering certificates |
| Non-EU producing installation | Supplies monitored emissions data; carries no direct CBAM obligation to the Union |
| Accredited verifier | Provides an independent opinion on the declared embedded emissions |
| Consultant | Prepares the calculation and the declaration; carries no statutory role |
Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 permits a declarant to use operator-submitted data through the registry. That is a data-transfer mechanism, not a transfer of responsibility.
The penalty structure
Failure to surrender sufficient certificates attracts a penalty of EUR 100 per tonne of CO2e not covered, set at the EU ETS excess emissions rate and inflation adjusted. The penalty is additive: paying it does not discharge the obligation, and the missing certificates must still be surrendered.
A higher penalty applies to goods introduced by a party that is not an authorised CBAM declarant, set at three to five times the standard rate, in the region of EUR 300 to EUR 500 per tonne of CO2e.
Figures circulating in the market that place the standard penalty between those two ranges conflate the two provisions. The standard rate and the unlawful-introduction rate are separate.
What this means commercially for an exporter
An exporter carries no direct EU penalty exposure, but it carries the commercial consequence. A declarant facing a EUR 100 per tonne penalty because supplier data proved unsupportable will move to a supplier whose data holds, or fall back on default values with their escalating mark-up and price that back into the contract.
Sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/956, Regulation (EU) 2025/2083
Data that survives verification is a commercial asset for the exporter even though the legal duty sits with the importer. CBAM solutions covers defensible embedded emissions preparation, and the CBAM cost calculator sets out how the resulting figures translate into exposure.