What does the product passport mean if I sell furniture via an online marketplace?

What you concretely have to do

What is expected of you

When selling furniture through an online marketplace, two types of obligations apply: those of the marketplace itself, and those of the party actually offering the furniture. Both have defined expectations, and these are not the same role.

Obligations of the marketplace

Article 35 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) sets out what is expected of online marketplace and search engine providers. A marketplace is typically not the party that compiles or provides the digital product passport — that responsibility lies with the manufacturer, importer or, in certain circumstances, the distributor. However, the marketplace does play a role in the environment where the passport becomes visible: for example, by facilitating the information shown to the consumer before a purchase is made. For a furniture company with 10 to 100 employees selling via such a platform, this primarily means that its own obligation is separate from what the marketplace does. The marketplace facilitates, but does not assume the obligation of the selling party.

Obligations of the seller on the marketplace

Anyone offering furniture via a marketplace is usually a manufacturer, importer or distributor/trader under the ESPR — depending on what actually happens to the product before it is offered. Articles 30 and 31 of the ESPR describe the obligations of distributors and traders: they are expected, among other things, to check whether the digital product passport is present and accessible to the customer before the product is offered. This is a controlling role, not a compiling one. For a company selling via a marketplace but not producing or importing the furniture itself, this is often the applicable role. What this role precisely entails is further detailed on the page about what obligations a distributor or trader of furniture has.

Determining the role before offering

Before anything is placed on the marketplace, it is important to establish which role actually applies: manufacturer, importer or distributor/trader. This distinction determines who provides the passport and who only checks whether it is present. A company that purchases furniture from a factory outside the EU and then offers it itself on a marketplace may be an importer — with a heavier obligation than a party that only resells existing, already certified products. This consideration is described on the page am I an importer or manufacturer under the ESPR.

Where things go wrong in practice

The passport is not shown on the marketplace page. A manufacturer has had a valid passport drawn up, but the QR code or link is missing from the product page on the marketplace. The marketplace sometimes only displays the photos and description that the seller has uploaded, without automatically including the passport. This is a practical issue separate from the question of whether the passport is substantively correct.

The seller thinks the marketplace takes care of it. Because the marketplace itself has obligations under Article 35, it is sometimes assumed that the marketplace also ensures the passport for each offered product. This is not how the role distribution works: the marketplace facilitates the environment, but the seller remains responsible for providing or checking the passport for its own offering.

Multiple sellers, one product page, one passport. On some marketplaces, multiple sellers share the same product page for an identical piece of furniture. If the furniture comes from different manufacturers or batches, one passport does not automatically fit all offerings — even if the furniture looks the same.

Resale of a batch without enquiring about the passport. A trader buys a remaining batch of furniture and places it on a marketplace without verifying whether a passport is included. When it subsequently becomes clear that the original manufacturer or importer never provided one, the trader is left with an offering without a passport, while it is precisely expected of them to check for this.

Unclear about who is the importer when selling via a marketplace from a third country. On marketplaces that also allow sellers from outside the EU, it is not always clear who is considered the importer under the ESPR: the foreign seller, the marketplace, or the EU party that handles logistics. What applies in this regard when the manufacturer is located outside the EU is explained on the page who arranges the product passport if the manufacturer is outside the European Union.

What you can put in order now

• An overview of your own role per marketplace offering: manufacturer, importer or distributor/trader, with the justification for why that role applies.
• Evidence that the passport is present and accessible at the time of offering — for example a screenshot or export of the product page with the QR code or link visible.
• Correspondence with the manufacturer or importer confirming that the passport has been provided, especially when furniture is offered under your own brand or as private label. More on this on the pages what obligations arise when selling under your own brand and who supplies the passport data for private label furniture.
• A fixed procedure for new offerings on the marketplace, which includes checking the passport before a product is placed online — including who within the company performs this check and where it is recorded.
• Agreements with the marketplace itself, where available, on how the passport is technically linked to the product page.
• A file per product group when the same furniture is sold via multiple marketplaces or under multiple offerings, so it remains clear which passport belongs to which batch or which model.

These records are not only relevant for your own administration, but also for the time when you later need to demonstrate that the controlling role was actually performed — something that becomes increasingly important as more parties (manufacturer, importer, marketplace) are involved in one offering.