EU Regulation 2024/1781 – Ecodesign and the Digital Product Passport
Discover how EU Regulation 2024/1781 will impact your company with the introduction of Ecodesign and the Digital Product Passport.
The European market is experiencing an unprecedented transformation that shifts the focus of industrial competitiveness toward transparency and circularity. With the entry into force of EU Regulation 2024/1781 (ESPR - Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation), the European Union has established a new regulatory framework to make sustainable products the norm rather than the exception. This is not a simple bureaucratic revision, but a paradigm shift: eco-friendly design (ecodesign) no longer concerns only energy efficiency, but the entire life cycle of the good, introducing revolutionary tools such as the Digital Product Passport which will allow the monitoring of the environmental footprint of each item placed on the market.
Beyond the old directive: what changes with EU Regulation 2024/1781
In practice, each product will have to meet specific ecodesign requirements which are divided into two main pillars:
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Performance requirements: minimum or maximum quantitative levels that a product must respect in order to be sold (for example, limits on the use of resources or recyclability thresholds).
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Information requirements: the need to provide transparent data on aspects such as the presence of substances of concern or instructions for maintenance and end-of-life.
The Digital Product Passport: the new identity card for sustainable products
The most significant innovation introduced by the regulation is undoubtedly the Digital Product Passport (DPP). It is a digital data set, accessible via a data carrier such as a QR code, which will accompany the product throughout the entire value chain.
For companies, implementing the DPP means learning to manage and measure their environmental data in a rigorous and standardized way, ensuring interoperability among the different actors in the supply chain.
A concrete example of this regulatory evolution is represented by the detergent sector: the new Regulation (EU) 2026/405 has already established the obligation of a Digital Product Passport for detergents and surfactants intended for the final user
Operational impact: which companies and sectors are involved?
The Regulation involves all economic operators: manufacturers, importers, and distributors. Compliance will no longer be a generic self-declaration, but will be attested by the CE marking, which will confirm compliance with the ecodesign standards set in the specific delegated acts for each category.
The 2025-2030 Working Plan of the European Commission has already identified the priority sectors that will be impacted first:
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Textile products, with particular attention to clothing and footwear.
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Iron, steel and aluminum, key sectors for industrial decarbonization.
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Furniture and mattresses.
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Tyres.
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Chemical products and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies).
What to do to be prepared
Many of our clients ask us if it is possible to wait for the publication of specific delegated acts before taking action. Our response, based on 25 years of experience in the sector, is that those who move today will gain an insurmountable competitive advantage.
Preparing in advance does not only mean avoiding penalties, but it means rethinking the product from a circular economy perspective. We at Chimica HTS often see that companies starting immediately to measure their environmental footprint and map their supply chain manage to optimize production costs and better respond to the demands of an increasingly demanding market.
The transition toward the Digital Product Passport will require a review of internal data flows. Anticipating this change allows the integration of data collection into existing business processes without operational trauma. At HTS, as a partner for sustainable product development, we interpret these regulatory innovations not as constraints, but as opportunities to demonstrate the excellence and technical reliability of Italian companies on the global stage.
The future of European manufacturing is traceable, durable, and low-impact. Being ready for EU Regulation 2024/1781 means being ready to lead this change.