What happens if I don't have a digital product passport for my mattresses?

No mandatory passport yet, but consequences later

At present, there are no consequences if a mattress manufacturer does not have a digital product passport: for mattresses, this obligation does not yet exist. The ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is the framework within which the European Commission establishes delegated acts for each product group that determine which products require a passport, with which data, and from when. For mattresses, this act does not yet exist. Once it does and enters into force, the picture will change: products that fall within the scope and are placed on the market without a passport then run the risk that a market surveillance authority will intervene on the basis of the market surveillance regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/1020).

For whom this applies, and for whom it does not

This topic concerns manufacturers and importers of mattresses who place products on the EU market — they will be the ones required to have the passport compiled and keep it available. A bedding specialist shop that resells mattresses that are already provided with a valid passport generally has no separate obligation to compile anything itself; it is selling a product that already complies. Hotel procurement and other business buyers are in a similar position: they are the buyer, not the party required to provide the passport. What this topic also does not regulate is an obligation for the end user (the consumer or hotel guest) — they will encounter the passport as a source of information, not as an obligation. And this concerns specifically the absence of a passport; other rules on mattresses, such as fire safety or chemical substances, are separate from this and remain fully applicable, with or without a product passport.

The date is not yet fixed

There is no definitive date yet on which a product passport for mattresses will become mandatory. The Commission's work plan for the ESPR (2025–2030) lists mattresses as a product group for which a delegated act is being prepared, with an expectation around 2028, but this is a schedule, not a fixed date. Only after that delegated act is published will it be clear from which date the obligation takes effect, and usually a transition period applies before the obligation actually takes effect. Until that text is published, nothing changes in the legal situation: there is no obligation, and therefore no sanction for the absence of a passport. Once the text is published, the date will be stated here.

What this means for preparation

For those already working on this topic, the most practical sequence is: first find out which data about a mattress are already known within the organisation (materials, origin, composition, any certifications), because these are the building blocks from which a passport will be compiled later. Next, it is useful to follow when the delegated act for mattresses is published, because only then will it become clear which data are mandatory and within which timeframe. Finally, it is important to know that deliberately modifying a product in the meantime to come within future requirements, or weakening performance to comply with stricter rules, is separately addressed in Article 40 of the ESPR, which aims to prevent circumvention and deliberate degradation of performance. That article is not directed at those who simply do not yet have a passport because the obligation does not yet exist, but at behaviour that actively attempts to evade future obligations. Those developing or redesigning a mattress now are therefore well advised to do so simply on the basis of current requirements, without anticipating circumvention constructions.

The basis: market surveillance regulation and Article 40 ESPR

The starting point that there is currently no sanction follows from the systematics of the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) itself: the regulation works with delegated acts to be established per product group, and without such an act for mattresses there is no concrete obligation to build upon. Once that act is in place, its enforcement is embedded in the broader framework of the market surveillance regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/1020), which gives market surveillance authorities in the EU Member States the competence to check whether products comply with the applicable requirements and to take action against products that do not. Article 40 of the ESPR adds to this with a specific provision against circumvention: it prevents manufacturers from undermining the operation of future or existing requirements by designing or adapting products so that they fall just outside the scope, or by deliberately worsening performance.

If you want to prepare for this topic now, it is best to start by putting your own product data in order and keeping an eye on the publication of the delegated act for mattresses — the rest of this knowledge base describes what should be included in that data once that moment arrives.