The ecodesign regulation and the battery regulation are regulations, not directives. They apply in Poland directly, without any national implementing law, and they bind on the same date as in Germany or Spain. The Polish legislature has two things left to do: name the authority that inspects, and set the penalties, because Article 74 of the ESPR requires it. Until it does, your deadlines run anyway. This article uses Poland as the worked example of how EU passport rules land in a member state, what is still missing on the national side, and who knocks when the passport is not there.
Why you are not waiting for a national law
Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union settles it in one sentence: a regulation is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all member states. A directive needs a national law to carry it across. A regulation needs nothing to start applying.
The four acts that build the digital product passport are all regulations:
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), the ecodesign and passport framework, in force since 18 July 2024.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, on batteries, with the battery passport from 18 February 2027.
- Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778 on the passport registry, applicable from 6 August 2026.
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) on packaging, with its own labelling and data carrier.
None of them waits for a national law, and none of them can be softened by one. National law can only add what the regulation leaves open: the penalties and the authority.
There is a second mechanism that really decides your date, and it is not national either. Article 9(1) of the ESPR says a product may be placed on the market only if a passport is available in accordance with the delegated act for its product group. Until there is a delegated act for your category, there is no passport obligation, whatever any national parliament does. Batteries are the exception: their date comes from the battery regulation itself.
What the national law actually adds
Article 74(1) of the ESPR: member states lay down the rules on penalties for infringements, the penalties must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and the state notifies the Commission without delay. Paragraph 2 lists what a penalty must take into account: the nature, gravity and duration of the infringement, whether it was intentional, the financial situation of the person responsible, and the economic benefit gained.
The second item is the authority. Market surveillance procedures are European and set out in Articles 68 to 71 of the ESPR: coordination in the ADCO group, the procedure for products presenting a risk at national level, the Union safeguard procedure and formal non-compliance. They are carried out by a national authority, designated by the member state under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance.
Which authority that is in Poland will be set by Polish law. As of the day this was published we could not confirm from a primary source that such a provision already exists for the ESPR, so we do not name an office. When it appears, it will be in the Polish journal of laws, and the draft earlier in the government legislation centre. This is one of the few parts of the topic that has to be checked nationally rather than in Brussels.
A third piece already works and needs no national law: Article 76 of the ESPR gives a consumer a damages claim against the manufacturer, or against the importer where the manufacturer is not established in the Union. That is civil liability, enforced in a national court on the basis of a European provision.
What already binds a company in Poland
Three dates that have either passed or are certain. They are worth keeping apart, because search results blur them into one.
- 19 July 2026, the ban on destroying unsold apparel and footwear. Article 25(1) of the ESPR with Annex VII. Micro and small enterprises are excluded, medium-sized ones join on 19 July 2030, large companies have been covered since last July. This is the first ESPR obligation that actually bites, and it has nothing to do with the passport.
- 20 July 2026, the Commission registry went live. Article 13 of the ESPR required it by 19 July 2026 and Regulation 2026/1778 sets the rules. The registry stores unique identifiers, the commodity code for products entering release for free circulation, and the battery identifiers from Article 77(3) of the battery regulation. It is a directory of identifiers, not a store of your data, and its launch is not an obligation for companies. We wrote about it on the day it started and again after logging in.
- 18 February 2027, the battery passport. That date comes from the battery regulation, not from a delegated act, so the Commission being late with other acts does not move it. It covers industrial batteries above 2 kWh, EV batteries and LMT batteries.
Your deadline depends on the category, not the country
This is the part the query "DPP in Poland" hides. There is no national DPP calendar. There is a European calendar per product group, and a Polish company sits exactly where its product sits.
- Batteries: 18 February 2027, a certain date.
- Textiles and apparel: delegated act expected in 2027, obligation realistically 2028 to 2029. Expected, not certain.
- Iron and steel: the first ESPR product delegated act, consultation closed on 12 August 2026, adoption expected.
- Furniture, mattresses, tyres, aluminium, ICT products: further down the working plan, obligations after 2028.
We keep the full list, split into certain and expected dates, on the industries and deadlines page, and the mechanism behind the counting is explained in DPP deadlines by industry.
You sell on a marketplace. Who owns the passport
The passport belongs to whoever places the product on the Union market. In practice that is three situations.
- You manufacture locally. You are the manufacturer, the passport is yours, and so is the duty from Article 9(1) that the data be accurate, complete and up to date.
- You import from outside the Union under your own brand. You are the importer and you are the one placing the product on the Union market. The passport is yours even when the data comes from the factory. A supplier outside the Union does not take that duty over.
- You resell someone else's goods in your shop or on a platform. You are a distributor. You do not create the passport, but you have to make it reachable, because Article 9(2)(e) requires the delegated act to specify how the passport is made accessible to customers before they are bound by a contract, including in distance selling. In practice: a link or a code on the product page, not in the parcel.
Who is covered and when is laid out in who does DPP apply to.
What search results get wrong
- "DPP has applied since 2026." No. 2026 brought the infrastructure, the registry, and the rules for running it. The obligation for a product arrives with the delegated act for its group, and for batteries from the battery regulation.
- "You have to register in the DPP registry." Not today. Registering a passport does not work yet, which we checked by going through verification. Verifying the operator is possible and needs a qualified electronic seal.
- "You need a GS1 code." Not always. The standards allow other identifier schemes, and GS1 Digital Link is one option, not a condition. We checked it against the standards in do you need GS1 for DPP.
How to check this yourself
The regulations are free on EUR-Lex: ESPR 2024/1781, the battery regulation 2023/1542 and the registry regulation 2026/1778. National acts and drafts in Poland: the legal acts system at isap.sejm.gov.pl and the government legislation centre at legislacja.rcl.gov.pl. Progress on delegated acts is visible in the Commission register of initiatives, and how to file feedback on one we described step by step.
What to do this week
- Fix your category and your deadline on the industries and deadlines page. It is one line in a note and it decides everything after it.
- Check whether Article 25 covers you. If you are a large company destroying unsold apparel or footwear, that is not a 2028 topic, it is a now topic.
- Decide what you are in the chain: manufacturer, importer or distributor. That decides whether the passport is yours or somebody else's.
- Build one passport as a test to see which data your files are missing. Our preview generator does it without an account in a few minutes.
FAQ
Does DPP apply in Poland?
The passport rules apply in Poland directly, because they are EU regulations. The duty to have a passport for a given product starts on the date set by the delegated act for its group, and for batteries on 18 February 2027. For most categories that day has not arrived yet.
Will there be a Polish DPP law?
A national law is not needed for the passport rules to apply, but it is needed for penalties and for naming the authority, because Article 74 of the ESPR requires it. We could not confirm that such a provision already exists for the ESPR; a draft would appear in the government legislation centre and the final act in the journal of laws.
Who inspects a product passport in Poland?
The market surveillance authority designated by the state under Regulation 2019/1020, acting through the procedures in Articles 68 to 71 of the ESPR. Which office that is will be set by national law, and we do not name one until it is written in a provision.
From when does DPP apply in Poland?
There is no single national date. Batteries: 18 February 2027, certain. Textiles: act expected in 2027, obligation realistically 2028 to 2029, expected. Other groups later, in line with the working plan.
Do small companies in Poland need a DPP?
Yes, if their product is covered by a delegated act. The ESPR does not exempt small companies from the passport. It does exempt them from the Article 25 ban on destroying unsold goods. Those are two different provisions and worth keeping apart.
Łukasz Głuch
Builds DPPera, a digital product passport tool for small and medium-sized companies. Reads the delegated acts so you do not have to. Writes about what he checked in the registry, not about what vendors promise.
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