To designate the provider for the furniture passport, you need three types of documents. First, information showing which legal entity fulfils the role: a Chamber of Commerce extract and the contact details on which that legal entity can be reached. Second, an internal or contractual record of who within or outside your organisation is responsible for keeping the passport up to date. Third, if your company is not itself established in the European Union, a written mandate to a representative who takes on this role. Loose technical files such as material lists, warranty conditions or test reports are not part of this designation; they are part of the content of the passport itself, not part of the question of who is responsible for it.
The detail most often overlooked in this matter is the time period. A furniture passport remains accessible for ten years, while during that period companies may merge, change name, change ownership or cease operations. Whoever is designated as the provider now must therefore still be contactable in a few years' time. That is different from simply filling in a name in a form, and it is precisely the point at which a designation may later prove to have been incomplete.
Who can fulfil the role of provider
The regulation allows for different parties to act as the provider: the manufacturer itself, a representative, an importer or, in certain cases, a distributor. Which party actually fulfils that role depends on the position in the supply chain and on what the parties agree between themselves. For companies encountering this for the first time, the distinction between these roles is not always self-evident. the knowledge base with the roles in the supply chain broken down by situation addresses that distinction separately from the question of what documents you need to record the role.
The documents that support the designation
In addition to the legal entity data and contact details, this concerns a document stating who is actually responsible for maintaining the passport during its duration, who manages access to the underlying data, and, where a representative is engaged, a signed mandate with a clear description of the tasks being transferred. In the event of a takeover, merger or name change, this record should be updated, not replaced by a new document that stands separately from the previous one.
Why the ten-year duration is the most important detail
Most questions about documents for the furniture passport concern content: which materials, which warranty, which test report. In designating the provider, it is not about content but about accessibility over time. An address that is correct now may not be correct in five years' time. Therefore, it is advisable to include in the record what happens if the designated party ceases to exist or changes name, and who takes on the role in that case. This is precisely the kind of detail that only becomes apparent when you think the process a few years ahead, and not just at the moment of implementation.
Recording who within your company is responsible
In addition to external documents, an internal arrangement is needed: who within your organisation supplies the data, who checks it and who maintains contact with a possible software supplier or service provider. Companies that are uncertain about this can see in a few questions which role suits their situation. This does not provide a legal judgment, but does provide an initial direction before you actually draw up the documents.
Supervision looks at the designation, not at the intention
Supervisory authorities reviewing a furniture passport check, among other things, whether the designated provider is genuinely accessible and available for contact, not merely whether a name is recorded somewhere. What that means in a concrete situation is for the competent supervisory authority or a legal professional to assess; this article describes only which documents belong with the designation, not how a supervisory authority will review them. For those who wish to see how furnipas.eu processes and stores the supplied data, this is explained on the page on how the information is created.
Would you like to get an impression of what applies to your company before you start gathering documents? The free quick-scan provides an initial direction, and the frequently asked questions answer part of the practical concerns that often arise on this topic.