Consequences of a Missing DPP: Fines and Import Bans

A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a legal obligation, not a good-practice nicety. When a passport is missing or defective, the consequences can be severe and reach across the whole supply chain. This article explains what non-compliance really risks — without scaremongering, but without sugar-coating either.

When a passport is non-compliant

Non-compliance is not only the total absence of a passport. Authorities can challenge a product in several situations:

• there is no passport at all where one is required,
• the passport is incomplete or contains inaccurate data,
• the data carrier (for example a QR code) is damaged, unreadable or does not lead to the record,
• the company obstructs market-surveillance activities.

Each of these can trigger a response from the authorities. It is worth remembering that incorrect data is often treated as seriously as its absence — a passport that misleads can be worse than none at all.

Who bears responsibility

Responsibility does not rest with the manufacturer alone. The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) spreads obligations across many participants in the trade.

In practice, manufacturers, importers, distributors and online platforms that intermediate sales can all be liable. Each, within its own scope, must ensure that a product on the market has a valid passport. The whole responsibility cannot be pushed onto a single link. We expand on this in Supply-chain responsibility for the DPP.

What sanctions are possible

The range of possible measures is broad and goes beyond fines alone. Non-compliance can risk:

• financial fines,
• withdrawal of the product from the market or a recall from users,
• a ban on placing on the market or importing,
• public disclosure of information about the non-compliance.

This last measure in particular is often underrated. Public information about a breach can harm a brand more than a monetary penalty itself, because it reaches customers and trading partners. The reputational effect is often longer-lasting than a one-off cost.

Penalties are set by member states

The level of penalties is not set uniformly by EU law. The ESPR (Article 74) requires national sanctions to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, but their specific shape is set by the member states.

This means penalties differ between countries and can be significant. If you sell in several EU states, you are simultaneously subject to different national sanction regimes — and you cannot assume that the mildest of them defines your risk. It is safer to assume that every market carries a real, meaningful sanction.

Market surveillance as the basis of enforcement

Enforcement rests on a common EU market-surveillance mechanism governed by Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. It gives authorities the tools to inspect products, demand documentation and take measures against non-compliant goods.

The passport fits into this system: structured, machine-readable data makes inspection easier and shortens how long it takes. We cover this in Market surveillance and the DPP, and the role of the border in The DPP and EU customs.

How to reduce the risk

The best protection is a complete, current and verifiable passport. In practice it is worth:

• making sure every product in scope has a working carrier and record,
• keeping data in one, continuously updated source,
• treating data accuracy as seriously as the mere existence of the passport.

This approach not only reduces the risk of penalties but also makes day-to-day work and dealings with trading partners easier.

Effects that go beyond the penalty itself

A financial penalty is only part of the bill. Halting the sale of a non-compliant product means lost revenue, and a withdrawal from the market generates the cost of logistics and handling returns. On top of that comes remediation work: completing the data, replacing faulty carriers, re-introducing the product to the market.

Nor can you ignore the reputational cost and the relationship with trading partners. A retail chain or distributor for whom compliance is a condition of cooperation may suspend orders until the matter is resolved. In practice, the total cost of non-compliance is therefore often many times higher than the fine itself.

Common mistakes that lead to non-compliance

Many breaches stem not from bad faith but from simple errors. The most common include:

• treating the QR code as the passport, instead of maintaining a complete data record,
• outdated data that does not keep up with changes to the product,
• a damaged or unreadable carrier that does not lead to the record,
• omitting the required level of detail, for example an item-level passport where one is required.

Being aware of these traps is the first step to avoiding them.

How authorities learn about non-compliance

It is worth understanding where an inspection comes from. The trigger can be a consumer complaint, a report from a competitor, findings from a border check, or market data pointing to elevated risk in a given category. Within the single market, authorities in different countries exchange information, so a problem detected in one country soon becomes known in others.

This means non-compliance is hard to "wait out". A product placed on the market without a valid passport stays there throughout its availability, and the risk stays with it.

Compliance as a process, not a one-off event

A common mistake is to treat the DPP as a task to tick off once, at the moment the product is placed on the market. In reality, the passport must stay complete and current throughout the product's life cycle, and the data may be checked long after launch.

That is why it is worth building compliance into the company's routine: periodically reviewing passports, checking carrier readability and updating data after every significant change to the product. This is far cheaper than fixing gaps under the pressure of an inspection.

Key takeaways

• Non-compliance covers a missing passport, incomplete or inaccurate data, a faulty carrier and obstructing inspection.
• Sanctions include fines, withdrawal, import bans and public disclosure of non-compliance.
• Penalties are set by member states; they must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
• Manufacturers, importers, distributors and online platforms can all be liable.
• Enforcement rests on market surveillance (Regulation (EU) 2019/1020).

See how CyfroPass helps you keep complete, up-to-date passports that pass inspection. Visit cyfropass.pl and start with your first product.