How do I document the supply of passport data in my purchase contract?

What you concretely have to do

What is expected of you

A purchase contract normally covers price, delivery time, and quality. For the digital product passport, a new element is added: the delivery of passport data by the supplier, on time and in the correct form. This is not a separate legal obligation that exists independently of your contract — the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) obliges actors in the supply chain to provide the information needed to compile the passport, but how that information flows from supplier to buyer is for the parties themselves to agree. Your contract is thus the instrument by which you make that flow enforceable.

Request data that are actually needed

A contract that merely states that the supplier will deliver "the required information" is not enforceable in practice: required for what, and according to which definition? It is more workable to specify which data are involved — material composition, origin, repair data, and whatever else is relevant for the type of furniture. Which data exactly those are depends on the product; an overview of what is typically requested can be found in which data should I request from my furniture supplier. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this usually means that the purchasing department or management sets out this list in an annex to the contract, rather than in the main text — in this way the list can be updated without renegotiating the entire contract.

Set the timing of delivery

Article 38 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) imposes obligations on actors in the supply chain to provide information, but says nothing about when that must happen in an individual commercial relationship. That timing is for the contracting parties. Practically speaking, it is wise to link the delivery of data to an existing contract milestone — for instance at order confirmation or at delivery of the goods — so that no separate process is needed to extract the data. Companies that do not set this out often discover only at the first delivery that the supplier has no protocol to deliver passport data.

Agree on form and format

Data that are delivered but in a form that cannot be processed create as much work as no data at all. For a mid-sized company, it is practical to name a format in the contract — a template, spreadsheet or other fixed format — so that data from different suppliers arrive in a comparable way. This is especially relevant when the same component is purchased from different suppliers; how you handle this is described in what do I do if I purchase the same component from different suppliers.

Liability for incorrect or missing data

As an importer, you bear obligations under Article 29 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), even when the underlying data come from a supplier who is not themselves bound by this regulation. That difference in position is relevant to the contract text: it is advisable for a purchasing party to set out what happens if data prove to be incorrect, incomplete or late, rather than negotiating about it only afterwards. For imports from outside the EU, this is even more significant, because the importer has a separate legal position there; see what does the product passport mean if I import furniture from outside the European Union.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of situations regularly come up among companies trying to capture this in a contract for the first time.

The data obligation is separate from the delivery obligation. The contract governs the delivery time of the furniture, but not when the passport data must be there. Result: the product arrives on time, the data arrive weeks later, or not at all.

"Market-standard" or "customary" data are agreed without a list. Both parties think they mean the same thing, until the data arrive and prove to be missing on precisely the point that was needed.

Sub-contractors and suppliers of semi-finished products are overlooked. A supplier delivers on its own behalf from another party, and this link is not included in the contract. Who in the chain is precisely obliged to provide data is addressed in must a subcontractor supplying semi-finished products also provide passport data.

There is no escalation agreement if the supplier fails to deliver. The contract is silent on what happens if data is not provided, leaving the buyer without leverage. What is to be done in that situation is set out in my supplier does not provide the data — what can I do.

Wood origin is treated as a minor matter. For solid wood furniture, origin is a data point that often must be recorded separately, with its own documentation flow that does not automatically run alongside the rest of the specifications. See how do I document the origin of the wood.

What you can put in order now

• An annex to the purchasing contract with the exact list of data to be requested, including reference to the template used.
• A delivery date for product passport data, linked to an existing contract moment such as order confirmation or delivery.
• A mandatory submission format (spreadsheet, template or other fixed format) so that data from different suppliers is comparable.
• A provision on the consequences of incorrect, incomplete or late data, including which party takes which steps in case of a deficiency.
• A reference to the obligation of sub-contractors or suppliers of semi-finished products to pass data on to the main supplier.
• An agreement on verification of the submitted data before processing; what that verification looks like in substance is set out in how do I check whether my supplier's data is correct.
• For suppliers outside the EU: a separate set of agreements on submission date and form, because data here is not automatically available in an EU-trusted format. See how do I obtain passport data from a supplier outside the EU.
• If desired, a provision on verification of data by an independent party, if that is desirable for the type of product or the scope of delivery; see must I have my passport data checked by an independent party.

These agreements are not a legal checklist, but contractual choices that make the delivery of product passport data just as enforceable as other delivery obligations. Which of these points are relevant also depends on whether the product passport already applies to the furniture type in question; see for that does the digital product passport apply to my furniture and, for background, what is a digital product passport for furniture.