What does a product passport for furniture cost?
The regulation itself does not state an amount
There is no price in the law: the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) prescribes what a digital product passport must contain and how it must be accessible, but does not regulate what creating or hosting it may cost. The costs of a product passport for furniture are therefore not set by Brussels, but determined by the market: by the providers that compile passports, host them and provide a QR data carrier, and by the amount of work that entails for a specific assortment. That does not mean there is nothing to say about it — only that the answer is not found in a regulation, but in the practice of service provision around that regulation.
What the law regulates and what it does not
Article 9 of the ESPR determines what information a digital product passport must contain, who must be able to access it (consumers, supervisory authorities, market participants) and that the data must be accessible via a data carrier such as a QR code. This is a substantive and technical obligation, directed at manufacturers and importers placing a product on the European market. The article says nothing about service provider tariffs, hosting costs, what a QR code may cost or who pays the bill. That side of the matter — the commercial side — falls outside the scope of the regulation and therefore also outside what can be described here with reference to that regulation.
When the costs become relevant
For furniture, it has not yet been determined when a digital product passport will be mandatory. The ESPR is the framework regulation; the actual obligation for a product group such as furniture only arises with a delegated act established specifically for that group. According to the European Commission's work plan for 2025-2030, such a delegated act for furniture is expected, but the date is not yet fixed. As long as that act is not in place, there is no legal obligation with associated costs — the question "what does it cost" is then still a question about a future obligation, not a current one. As soon as the act is published, the date will appear here.
Which factors determine the final price
Even without a fixed amount, it is possible to say something about what the costs depend on, in the order in which a manufacturer or importer encounters them. First there is the question of how many product groups and variants are involved: one furniture line with a few materials is less work than an assortment with dozens of fabrics, wood types and finishes, because each passport must contain the correct data for that specific variant. Next, it matters how that data is already organised: if material composition, origin and maintenance instructions are already digitally and structurally recorded, or if they still need to be extracted from drawings, purchase files and supplier emails. The latter takes considerably more time than transferring data that is already in order. It also matters whether the passport is compiled once or needs to be maintained over the years — for example if there are changes in a production process or supplier — and who does that maintenance. Finally, it makes a difference whether a company sets this up and hosts it itself, or outsources it to a platform that handles compilation, hosting and QR data carrier; in the latter case, part of the costs shifts from internal hours to a service that is purchased per product or per period. For an entrepreneur who wants to prepare for this, it is therefore more practical to first map out their own product data than to wait for a definitive amount — because the scope of that own work is the largest variable.
What this is based on: Article 9 ESPR
The regulation does not set an amount, as follows from Article 9 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), which governs the content and accessibility of the digital product passport without making any statement on costs or fees. The obligation for furniture has not yet been activated, and a delegated act must still be adopted for this purpose, as follows from the explanatory notes of the European Commission on the ecodesign regulation for sustainable products and the associated work plan.
What to do
Anyone who wants to engage with this subject now should best start with an inventory of their own product data: which materials, origin and maintenance information are already established, and in what form. That inventory will later determine the largest part of the costs, regardless of which provider or which date ultimately applies. For a concrete amount it is too early — that will only come into view once the scope of the own assortment and the state of the own data are known, and once the delegated act for furniture has been published.
This is based on
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), Article 9 (digital product passport)
- European Commission — ecodesign regulation for sustainable products
The regulation itself is available on EUR-Lex. We refer per statement; you do not need to believe us.
What you concretely have to do
What is expected of you
The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) prescribes in Article 9 that a product with a digital product passport reaches the market, but the regulation says nothing about what that passport may cost or who pays which part of the bill. That is a choice that lies with the company itself, within the frameworks that the delegated act for furniture will set out shortly. What can be said at this moment, however, is where the costs come from in practice and what a company with 10 to 100 employees can prepare for.
Collecting and organising data
The largest cost item usually does not lie in the passport itself, but in gathering the underlying data: materials, origin, repair information, composition of fabrics and coatings. For a company with a few hundred article numbers and dozens of colour and fabric variants, that is a considerable task, especially if that information is still scattered across procurement files, emails and the minds of individual employees. How that process can be tackled step by step is described on the phased approach to the product passport.
Technology: carriers, hosting and connections
A passport must be unlocked digitally via a data carrier, usually a QR code, and the underlying data must remain accessible somewhere for ten years, even if a product is no longer sold. That means a choice between building it yourself, extending an existing system, or outsourcing this to a platform that already does this for multiple customers. For companies that already use a product database or PIM system, the question is relevant whether that basis can be adapted for this new requirement, or whether a separate layer is needed; that is elaborated on the page on adapting existing software for the passport.
Maintenance with changes in the product range
A passport is not a one-time exercise. As soon as a fabric is replaced, a supplier changes, or a colour variant is discontinued, the data behind the passport must be updated. For a collection with many variants, this maintenance quickly adds up, especially when every fabric-colour combination is regarded as a separate product. How to keep that manageable is described on the phased approach to collections with many colour and fabric variants.
Internal time and responsibility
In addition to external costs for technology and hosting, there is the time of your own people: someone who collects the data, verifies it and keeps it current, and who knows where that information comes from. At a company with 10 to 100 employees, this is often not a full-time function, but a task added to an existing role — with the risk that it will be neglected when other pressing matters take over.
Where things go wrong in practice
Costs are only estimated when the deadline is already near. Because the date for furniture is not yet fixed, the cost question is often deferred until "it is certain". The consequence is that data collection — which takes the most time — only begins late, while that very process requires the most lead time.
Only looking at software costs, not at data quality. A company compares platforms and systems on price per SKU, but underestimates what it costs to obtain material data from suppliers who do not yet hold this information in a structured manner themselves.
No account taken of variants. A sofa that is available in twelve fabrics and four leg colours is included in the budget as "one product", while the data effort and thus the costs scale with the number of combinations.
Maintenance not included in the calculation. The one-time setup is budgeted, but the annual updating of passports with changes in the product range is forgotten, with the result that the actual costs over a number of years turn out to be higher than the initial estimate.
Confusion between what is already useful now and what only becomes mandatory later. Some companies wait until the rules are final before taking action, while others invest too early in systems that do not yet align with the ultimate requirements. What can be addressed now without risk is described on the steps that can already be taken in anticipation of the final rules.
What you can put in order now
- An overview of which product data is already available per article number, and which data still needs to be obtained from suppliers.
- An estimate of the number of unique product-variant combinations for which a digital product passport will ultimately be required, as a basis for a realistic cost estimate.
- An agreement on who within the company is responsible for keeping the data up to date, also after the initial setup.
- An overview of existing software and systems (PIM, ERP, product database) and whether these can serve as a basis, or whether a separate solution is needed.
- A file in which information is recorded that a competent authority might request during an inspection, so that the investment in data is not solely focused on the digital product passport itself; see what a competent authority may ask for during an inspection of furniture.
- A schedule that takes into account the time needed to request missing information from suppliers, regardless of the question of when the obligation exactly takes effect.
This is not legal advice. This page provides general information about the legislation that this platform concerns. We do not know your situation. If in doubt about your own case, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.
Written with AI based on the sources above, reviewed by a human on 2026-08-22. Is something wrong? Let us know — corrections take priority.