European Product Act (EPA)

Market surveillance reform — proposal expected in the third quarter of 2026

Collage of production lines and a digital product passport for product conformity.

What the European Product Act is

The European Product Act is a legislative package expected in the third quarter of 2026 that will replace two pillars of EU product law: the New Legislative Framework (Decision 768/2008/EC and Regulation (EC) No 765/2008) and the Market Surveillance Regulation (EU) 2019/1020.

The Commission Work Programme 2026 confirms it as a single dossier comprising three legislative revisions — market surveillance, the New Legislative Framework and the Standardisation Regulation. The creation of an EU-level market surveillance authority is also under discussion.

What does the European Product Act mean for your digital product passport?

Nothing changes in law yet: the Act is a proposal. It does show where the digital product passport is heading. CE marking stays physical and is complemented by the passport, and because thirty acts share the New Legislative Framework template, CE-marked products could come into scope by a route other than the ESPR. The dated obligations today are still ESPR ones: iron and steel first, then textiles and furniture.

DigitalProductPassport by WIARA already has templates for reinforcing steel, textiles and furniture, and updates them when the rules change. Open a demo passport to see what that record looks like, or check whether your product needs one.

The problem the Commission describes, and the tooling already running

What sits behind the reform

Enforcement is the weak link, not legislation

The 2022 evaluation of the New Legislative Framework found inconsistent enforcement from insufficient resources, limited EU-level coordination, insufficient specialist knowledge for digital requirements such as the DPP, and inadequate IT infrastructure.

The Safety Gate numbers

In 2025: 4,671 alerts — up 14% and a record, 5,794 follow-up actions (+35%), 2,006 alerts on products from China (43%), and over 1,200 registered online marketplaces.

The technology already exists

The Commission’s AI-powered web crawler is integrated with the Safety Gate portal. Council conclusions of 26 February 2026 formally back the use of AI for market surveillance for the first time.

What respondents want

From 299 responses to the New Legislative Framework consultation: 83% support digital compliance for products sold online; 73% support new powers to suspend or withdraw notified-body notifications.

Why this matters beyond surveillance

CE marking stays physical — but is complemented

The consultation outcome is explicit: CE marking remains physical, complemented — not replaced — by inclusion in the Digital Product Passport.

Thirty acts share one template

Thirty legal acts are built on the New Legislative Framework template. If a DPP obligation is wired into its revision, the addressable scope expands well beyond the ESPR working plan — potentially to the entire CE-marked universe: toys, machinery, low-voltage equipment, radio equipment, medical devices, PPE, pressure equipment, lifts.

The Commission’s stated intent

To make Digital Product Passports "the main tool for sharing product information in the European Union".

Publish this passport with DigitalProductPassport by WIARA

The European Product Act is a proposal, not yet law. The direction it sets, one digital record per product readable by market surveillance, is the one a passport already implements.

DigitalProductPassport by WIARA is a cloud platform built by WIARA, a software company. You enter the product data once; the platform publishes a passport page with a permanent QR code and a GS1 Digital Link URL, in all 24 official EU languages, keeping public, professional and authority fields apart. ESPR and CPR templates come ready made.

The free plan covers 3 passports in total. What the platform does is set out on the product page, and the plans and their limits are on pricing.

The European Product Act and the Digital Product Passport

Frequently asked questions

The proposal is expected in the third quarter of 2026. As of March 2026 the European Parliament had not appointed a rapporteur. The ordinary legislative procedure follows the proposal, so applicable rules are a matter of years.

No. The consultation points the other way: the marking stays physical and is complemented by inclusion in the digital passport. This adds a digital layer rather than replacing the physical one.

Because the New Legislative Framework covers thirty acts — far more products than the ESPR working plan. If the DPP is wired into its revision, products outside the ESPR could enter scope by another route.

That the direction is structured, machine-readable product data rather than documents. A company already building DPP data under the ESPR is also building for a possible wider regime. That is an argument for investing now — but not a basis for claiming an obligation already exists, because it does not.

A business team at a work meeting — a consultation on implementing a DPP.
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