A fair question about any new rule is: who is actually going to check, and what happens if I don't? With the Digital Product Passport, the answer matters — because non-compliance isn't a paperwork slap on the wrist. It can stop you selling.

Who is responsible

Enforcement of EU product rules doesn't sit with Brussels. It is delegated to each member state, which must appoint market surveillance authorities — national bodies with the power to inspect products, request documentation and act against non-compliant goods. If you sell in Ireland, France or Poland, it's that country's authority you'll answer to.

Alongside them sit customs authorities. For goods entering the EU from outside, customs act as the first line of control, and can hold or refuse products that don't meet requirements at the border.

What enforcement looks like in practice

The passport itself makes checking easier, which is part of the point. An inspector — or in time, an automated system — can scan the data carrier on a product and read its passport on the spot. That makes it straightforward to spot a product that has no passport, an incomplete one, or data that doesn't add up.

The same QR code that helps your customer also helps the regulator. Transparency cuts both ways.

Authorities can request the underlying documentation, carry out checks on products already on the market, and follow up on complaints from customers or competitors.

The penalties

Member states set their own penalties, but the ESPR requires them to be "effective, proportionate and dissuasive." In practice that means the toolkit typically includes:

  • Orders to bring a product into compliance within a set time
  • Withdrawal or recall of non-compliant products from the market
  • Financial penalties
  • Exclusion from public procurement contracts for a period

The most commercially serious one is the simplest: if a covered product doesn't have a compliant passport, it cannot legally be placed on the EU market. The risk isn't only a fine — it's losing access to the market itself.

What this means for you

You don't need to fear an inspector to take this seriously; you need to treat the passport as a condition of selling, like a CE mark. The practical takeaway is that compliance has to be real and current, not a one-off document filed away. That's exactly why Luxima keeps each passport generated and up to date automatically — so that whenever someone checks, the answer is already in order.