What data goes into the product passport for furniture?
The categories are defined in the ESPR, the exact list for furniture not yet
Which data will eventually be included in the product passport for a piece of furniture is determined by the delegated act for furniture — and that has not yet been published. What is already established, however, is the framework within which that list will be drawn up. Article 7 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) lists the categories of information that the European Commission can make mandatory per product group: data on sustainability and lifespan, repairability and availability of spare parts, reuse of materials and recycled content, presence of hazardous substances, energy and raw material use, and instructions for disassembly, maintenance or disposal. Article 10 then governs how that information is technically recorded: linked to a unique product identification, accessible via a data carrier such as a QR code, and readable for both supervisory authorities and end users. For furniture specifically, the delegated act must still indicate which of these categories are mandatory and to what degree of detail.
For whom this framework applies and what is still open
This framework concerns manufacturers, importers and project furnishers of furniture that will fall under the ESPR rules for this product group. It concerns the structure of the passport in a general sense — the types of information that the legislator has in mind — not an exhaustive, furniture-specific list with data field names, units of measurement or threshold values. That specification is reserved for the delegated act that is established per product group. For other product groups (think of textiles or electronics), equal or possibly different emphases may apply within the same categories from Article 7, simply because the risks and material properties differ per product. What is not included here is an assessment of which substance, which figure or which provenance claim will be mandatory for a specific piece of furniture — that is precisely the part that still needs to be filled in.
When the furniture-specific list will arrive
There is no fixed date yet for the delegated act for furniture. According to the ESPR work plan 2025-2030, that act is expected in 2028, but this is a schedule and not a legally established deadline. Until the act is adopted and published, existing rules on product information and mandatory labelling apply to furniture, without the additional passport requirement from the ESPR. As soon as the delegated act for furniture is published, the exact data list and the date on which it becomes applicable will be incorporated here.
How to approach this in practice
Those who want to work with the passport now will start by mapping the data that the categories of Article 7 potentially concern: material composition and origin of raw materials, presence of substances reported under REACH or comparable regulations, data on repair and spare parts (which spare parts are replaceable, whether spare parts are available), and information on recycled content or reused materials. That is work that is needed anyway, regardless of the exact end date, because this data is usually already present somewhere in the chain — with the supplier of sheet material, with the upholsterer, with the manufacturer of fittings. A second step is to organise this data per product model instead of per batch or delivery, because the passport will eventually be linked to a unique product or product model via the data carrier from Article 10. A third step is to monitor the publication of the delegated act for furniture, so that the precise fields do not come as a surprise but as an addition to a dataset that is already largely in order. Those who have a passport compiled via furnipas.eu will supply this underlying data; the translation to the ultimate passport format and the QR data carrier will proceed from that point via the platform.
The legal basis: Articles 5 to 7 and Article 10 of the ESPR
The categories of information that can be included in a product passport are set out in Articles 5 to 7 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), which govern the general ecodesign requirements and the corresponding performance and information requirements. Article 10 of the same regulation describes the technical and structural requirements for the digital product passport itself, including the link to a unique identification and accessibility via a data carrier. The specification for each product group — including furniture — is carried out via a delegated act, which the Commission establishes on the basis of this framework and which takes direct effect after publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The fulfilment per product group — so also for furniture — is carried out via a delegated act, which the Commission establishes on the basis of this framework and which takes direct effect after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.
What to do now
Start by collecting the data that falls under the categories of Article 7 — material, substances, repairability, recycled content — per product model, and follow the publication of the delegated act for furniture to see which of that data becomes mandatory and in what format. This page will be updated as soon as that act is published.
This is based on
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), article 10 (requirements for the digital product passport)
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), Articles 5 to 7 (ecodesign requirements, performance and information requirements)
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
The ESPR itself does not provide a ready-made list of data fields for furniture. Article 10 of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) describes what a digital product passport must be capable of in general terms: it must link product information to a unique identification, be accessible via a data carrier (in practice a QR code), and contain data that match the requirements established for that product category. Which data specifically apply to furniture follows from the product-specific delegated act, and that does not yet exist. Articles 5 to 7 of the ESPR do provide the framework within which those requirements are drawn up: requirements on sustainability, reusability, repair, material use, recyclability and the presence of hazardous substances belong there in principle.
On the basis of that framework, a number of data categories can be expected that in practice are already frequently requested by purchasers, certification schemes and existing standards for furniture. This is not a prediction of the final list, but a description of the direction in which the legislation points.
What is expected of you
Product identification and basic data
A product passport begins with data that identify the product and its maker: model name, product code, manufacturer or importer, and a unique identification as referred to in Article 10 of the ESPR. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means above all an administrative exercise: existing article codes and master data must be consistently and uniquely linked to one passport per product or product variant.
Material composition
Furniture often consists of multiple parts with different materials: a frame of wood or metal, an upholstery of textile or leather, filling of foam. The expectation is that the passport provides insight into that composition. For companies that assemble furniture from parts from different suppliers this means that the material data per part must be known, not only at product level. How detailed that must be is described in do I have to record the material for each part of a piece of furniture?
Hazardous substances
Furniture can contain substances that must be separately listed, such as certain flame retardants, adhesives or coatings. For a medium-sized company this means that the company's own procurement documentation of raw materials and semi-finished products must be in order, so that this information does not have to be looked up afterwards from each supplier. More information on this is provided in which hazardous substances must I mention in the product passport of a piece of furniture
Formaldehyde emission
For furniture with sheet materials (particleboard, MDF), the formaldehyde emission class is a data point already used in existing standards and that has a logical place in the passport. The practical question is which measurement method and which class classification is used; this is explained in how do I determine the formaldehyde emission class of a piece of furniture?
Repair, disassembly and lifespan
One of the objectives of the ESPR is to extend the lifespan of products. For furniture it is logical that the passport contains data on disassembly (for repair or recycling) and on the availability of spare parts. For a company this means that product information that may now only be held by the company's own technical service must be structured and made accessible externally. See what must be included in the disassembly instructions? and, for ongoing repairs after sale, must I record repairs of a piece of furniture in the product passport
Recyclability and CO2 data
Two data points that are often mentioned together in the context of circularity are the percentage of recyclable material and the CO2 footprint of the product. Both require a calculation based on an established method, not an estimate. Practical implementations are provided in how do I calculate the percentage of recyclable material of a piece of furniture and must I have the CO2 footprint of my piece of furniture calculated for the passport
Textiles and upholstery
For upholstered furniture, there will probably be a separate point of attention for the covering: fibre composition, origin and any treatments. This concerns both the material data and the hazardous substances data and requires coordination with the fabric or leather supplier. See how do I record data on textiles and upholstery in the product passport
Where things go wrong in practice
A number of situations come up repeatedly with companies preparing for the product passport:
- Material data are available, but only at the level of the component supplier, not at the level of the raw material. When enquiries are made, no one can remember which adhesive or coating was used exactly.
- The formaldehyde emission class is stated based on a test carried out years ago on a similar, but not identical product.
- Data on hazardous substances are scattered across safety data sheets of individual raw materials, without anyone ever having compiled them into a single overview per end product.
- When assembling furniture from components from multiple manufacturers, there is no clear agreement on who supplies and maintains which part of the passport data.
- Repair or maintenance data are kept in an internal service system, but are not linked to the product passport of the specific item.
These problems usually do not arise because companies are unwilling, but because data that were previously "sufficient" for internal use now have to be recorded in a structured external passport.
What you can put in order now
- An internal overview per product model of all materials used, per component, with reference to the supplier and the corresponding purchasing document.
- Test reports for formaldehyde emission, with date and measurement method used, linked to the specific sheet material being purchased.
- Safety data sheets and declarations from suppliers about the presence of substances that fall under the hazardous substances legislation.
- A disassembly manual per product model, even if this is currently only used internally by the technical department.
- Agreements with suppliers on who supplies which data, including a fixed update schedule; see also how often must I update the data in the product passport?
- An overview of which data are business confidential and which are shared publicly, including the justification for this; see must I make business-sensitive data about my furniture public?
- Calculations and underlying data for CO2 footprint and recyclability percentage, with indication of the method used and the date of calculation.
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.