No EU law that creates a Digital Product Passport exempts a business because it is small. Article 22 of the ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, gives small and medium-sized enterprises support instead: digital tools and guidelines with product acts where appropriate, and national help points. The ESPR’s size exemptions cover unsold goods, not the passport.
Does the ESPR exempt small and medium-sized enterprises?
No. The passport chapter of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) has no size test. The duty follows the role: the manufacturer under Article 27(1)(c), the importer that checks the passport under Article 29(2)(c), then distributors and dealers. A micro-enterprise and a multinational carry the same duty once their product group is covered. Who creates the passport has its own answer.
No ESPR product is covered yet, because a passport binds only through a delegated act for its product group, and none had been adopted by 18 October 2026. The battery passport is the first with a date in law: 18 February 2027.
What help does Article 22 give SMEs?
Help at three levels:
- Under Article 22(1), the Commission runs initiatives that help SMEs build environmental sustainability into their value chain.
- Under Article 22(2), each delegated act comes, “where appropriate”, with digital tools and guidelines for SMEs in that product sector.
- Under Article 22(3), each Member State must at least provide national help points that explain the ecodesign rules and put firms in touch. It may add financial support, training and technical assistance, within State aid rules.
The ESPR takes its definition of an SME from Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC. Where appropriate, the tools and guidelines arrive with product acts, so none exist yet.
Could a later product act exempt small firms?
Not by size alone. Article 4(4) requires each act to give “sufficient time to comply”, with the needs of SMEs in mind. Article 5(11) rules out requirements that place a disproportionate burden on them. Recital 13 lets a future act exempt, for example, “products produced in very small quantities”. That would be a product test in a later act, not a rule today.
Where does the “micro and small enterprise” exemption come from?
From the unsold goods rules. The ban on destroying unsold apparel and footwear in Article 25(1) and the yearly disclosure of discarded unsold products in Article 24(1) do not apply to micro and small enterprises. Medium-sized enterprises come under both from 19 July 2030. The passport chapter has no such sentence.
Other passport laws take the same line
The battery passport in Article 77 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 has no size test. That Regulation’s turnover threshold limits only its due diligence chapter. The toy safety Regulation (EU) 2025/2509 asks the Commission to give SMEs guidelines on running a toy passport by 1 August 2029. The construction passport exemption in Article 76(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 covers certain custom-made and heritage products, whatever the firm’s size.
Sources: ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Regulation (EU) 2025/2509, Regulation (EU) 2024/3110
For a smaller manufacturer, GreenSutra’s DPP consulting begins with a readiness check of the product data already on file. The DPP guide lists each law’s dates.