Insights
EU Product Data Regulations 2026-2030: What Your Business Needs to Know.
Please note: this blog reflects our current understanding as of April 2026 and is intended as a practical orientation, not legal advice. The regulatory landscape is moving fast, and a few important caveats apply:
- Most regulations depend on delegated acts that are still being drafted. Exact data requirements, timelines, and technical standards are not yet final for many of the frameworks discussed here. What is known today may be refined, delayed, or adjusted before it enters into force.
- Political pressure to simplify is real. Initiatives like Omnibus I have already reduced scope and pushed back deadlines. Further adjustments are possible.
- The underlying direction is not changing. Regardless of short-term political dynamics, the EU’s trajectory toward more product data, more transparency, and more traceability is firmly established. Companies that wait for final certainty before acting are likely to fall behind.
Quick access:
- EU Product Data Compliance
- ESG & The Green Deal
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
- ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) & DPP (Digital Product Passport)
- EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation)
- PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation)
- GPSR (General Product Safety Regulation)
- Frequently Asked Questions
Why EU Product Data Compliance Can’t Wait.
For years, product regulation in the EU was manageable: a handful of directives, and relatively light enforcement. That era is over.
In the coming years, the EU is adding new rules at an accelerating pace, and enforcement is becoming stricter, more precise, and less optional. Checks are no longer limited to government agencies (like the NVWA or ACM in the Netherlands). They now come from NGOs, quality mark organizations, accountants, banks, and even consumers!
The critical shift: compliance is no longer about filing the right paperwork. You must be able to actively prove that your products meet the requirements. How? With structured, verifiable, traceable data.
This is why product data has moved from a commercial asset to a legal prerequisite for EU market access.
Webinar: watch on-demand
European Laws & Regulations Update 2026
During this webinar, Guus van de Mond and Remco Smit will delve into the upcoming European laws & regulations in relation to product data. In 45 minutes, you’ll learn more about all upcoming laws and regulations, how to be compliant, and what first steps to take.
ESG, The Green Deal, And Why They Drive Product Legislation.
To understand why so many regulations are emerging simultaneously, you need to understand the strategic framework behind them.
In 2019, the EU launched the European Green Deal, a commitment to transition to a sustainable economy by 2050. The Green Deal is the strategy. ESG legislation is the instrument that translates that ambition into concrete, enforceable requirements.
ESG stands for:
- Environmental: a company’s impact on climate, including CO₂ emissions, energy usage, resource consumption, and waste
- Social: how a company treats their employees, suppliers, customers, and local communities, covering working conditions, diversity, safety, and human rights
- Governance: internal business conduct including ethics, transparency, executive pay, and board composition
Understanding ESG is the key to understanding why the data requirements discussed in this blog look the way they do.
CSRD / ESRS: Who Must Report, When, and What Data Is Needed.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is the EU law that requires companies to report in detail on ESG topics. It works together with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) as a two-layer system:
- CSRD = the law. It defines who must report, when, and that reports must be independently audited.
- ESRS = the rulebook. It defines what must be reported and how, through a set of harmonized standards.
Who’s in scope of the CSRD?
Following Omnibus I (February 2026), the scope has been significantly narrowed:
| Wave | Company category | First reporting year | Report published |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Large listed companies (already under NFRD) | 2024 | 2025 |
| 2 | Other large companies (>1.000 employees + >€450M turnover) | 2027 | 2028 |
| 3 | Listed SMEs | Out of scope (Omnibus I) | — |
| 4 | Non-EU companies (>€450M + EU branch >€200M turnover) | 2028 | 2029 |
What product data does CSRD/ESRS require?
CSRD is not product-group-specific, but companies that manufacture or sell physical products face the heaviest data demands. Examples include:
- Scope 3 GHG emissions for purchased goods and upstream transportation
- Energy consumption allocated to products
- Circularity metrics
- Substances of concern in products
- Carbon footprint and material composition of supplied products
Why SMEs are not off the hook: VSME.
Even if your company falls outside the legal scope of CSRD, your large customers are in scope, and they must report on their entire value chain. That means they need sustainability data from all their suppliers, including your organization!
The VSME (Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs) was designed to solve this. It gives SMEs a single, standardized framework to respond to customer data requests consistently. Being a supplier to a CSRD-reporting company means you will be asked for this data. It is technically voluntary but in practice, it’s rapidly becoming the expected standard.
Get Ready For Product Data Compliance with Squadra.
Let’s talk!
4 EU Regulations That Require Structured Product Data.
Beyond CSRD, four product-level regulations stand out for their immediate and direct impact on product data management.
1. ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) & DPP (Digital Product Passport)
The ESPR is the EU’s master framework for sustainable product requirements. It applies to virtually all physical products on the EU market, with the exception of food, animal feed, and medicinal products.
Its most significant innovation is the Digital Product Passport (DPP) . This is a standardized digital dataset for every product, accessible via a QR code, NFC tag, or RFID chip to consumers, authorities, and recyclers.
Core data requirements include:
- Product identification: unique identifier, GTIN, product name, category
- Carbon footprint: total lifecycle CO₂, calculated per EU-defined methodology
- Material composition: full bill of materials, hazardous substances with CAS numbers and concentrations
- Circularity & durability: reparability score, expected lifespan, recycled content, disassembly instructions
- Supply chain transparency: country of origin of key materials, conformity data
Timeline: The ESPR framework entered into force on 18 July 2024. DPP obligations for the first priority product groups are expected from 2027–2028, with broader rollout through 2030 and beyond. Priority sectors include batteries, textiles, furniture, electronics, iron and steel, tires, and chemicals.
2. EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation)
At Squadra, we describe the EUDR as the most data-intensive product regulation the EU has ever introduced. We’ll explain!
The EUDR requires that products entering or traded within the EU are proven deforestation-free and legally produced. It applies to products containing or derived from: cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, or wood. This includes derived products like leather, chocolate, paper, furniture, and tires.
The EUDR sounds like a sustainability requirement, but it’s actually a product data problem on four levels:
- You need to know what’s in your products: every product needs a complete and accurate bill of materials, down to the origin of each material.
- You need to link products to supply chain data: the EUDR due diligence statement requires a direct chain from finished SKU → bill of materials → raw commodity → supplier → country of origin → GPS coordinates of production plot → date of production → deforestation risk assessment.
- You need to maintain this data at scale: for a mid-sized retailer, this can quickly mean tens of thousands to millions of extra data points!
- You need to connect internal and external systems: without a governed product data foundation at the center, this is nearly impossible to do reliably.
Timeline: Large operators and traders must comply from 30 December 2026. Small and micro enterprises from 30 June 2027.
Non-compliance carries serious consequences: fines of at minimum 4% of annual EU-wide turnover, confiscation of products, market bans, and potential criminal sanctions for serious or repeated infringements.
3. PPWR (Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation)
The PPWR replaces the old Packaging Directive and sets new rules for all packaging placed on the EU market, regardless of sector. It applies to every company in the chain: manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, and e-commerce players.
For every packaging item (box, bottle, label, lid), companies will need a technical file and Declaration of Conformity. The data required includes:
- Material type and weight per packaging component
- Inks, coatings, and adhesives used
- Recycled content percentage (with supplier certification)
- Recyclability class (A–E)
- Substances of concern (lead, cadmium, mercury, PFAS, etc.)
The PPWR also introduces EPR fee modulation: better-designed, more recyclable packaging pays lower producer responsibility fees. So, better packaging data literally saves you money!
Timeline: The regulation was published in February 2025 and becomes fully legally binding on 12 August 2026. All packaging must be recyclable by 2030.
4. GPSR (General Product Safety Regulation)
The GSPR is the EU’s baseline safety net for all non-food consumer products. It replaced the old General Product Safety Directive in December 2024, making it the most immediately relevant regulation for many businesses.
The GPSR requires companies to maintain and be able to produce on demand:
- Product name, model, batch/serial number on every product
- Manufacturer name, address, and contact details
- Multilingual safety warnings, age restrictions, and usage instructions
- Technical documentation: risk assessments, test reports, bill of materials, substances of concern
- CE marking status
Online marketplaces such as Amazon, Bol, and Zalando are required under the GPSR to actively remove non-compliant listings. Missing or incomplete product data can result in immediate delisting, product recalls, and fines of tens of thousands of euros per infringement.
How to Build a Product Data Foundation for EU Compliance.
Many organizations make the mistake of starting with an ESG reporting tool, only to discover that the underlying data foundation is missing. The correct approach follows a structured sequence:
- Draw up a regulatory map. Which regulations are relevant for your organization now, and within three years?
- Inventory the data points. Map the required attributes per regulation, identify overlap, and cluster them.
- Extend your PIM/MDM/PLM data model. Define attributes, units, validations, and version control.
- Set up the data flows. Connect supplier portals, LCA tools, and external reference data.
- Assign governance. Define ownership per attribute and establish an audit trail.
- Connect the consuming systems. Link to CSRD reporting tools, DPP publication platforms, and customer portals.
The underlying principle is that product data must be consistent, traceable, and shareable. Compliance is no longer about creating documents or reports. It is about building the right data infrastructure, with governance to define and control data, processes to maintain it, architecture to structure it, and technology to scale it.
Organizations that succeed will not be those that respond to each regulation individually. They will be those that invest in a strong, future-proof data foundation .
FAQs
Key Takeaway: Structured Product Data Is the New Market Access Requirement.
If you’ve come this far, we hope you understand that the direction of where the EU is heading with these new laws is clear. Every regulation covered in this blog (CSRD, ESPR/DPP, EUDR, PPWR, GPSR) has one thing in common: they all require structured, reliable, and scalable product data as a condition of doing business in the EU market.
Companies that don’t adapt quickly will fall behind competitors, face higher costs, and risk sanctions. The good news: companies that build the right data foundation now are not just managing compliance. They are building a strategic capability that will support their commercial ambitions and every future regulation that follows!
Ready to Prepare Your Product Data for EU Compliance?
At Squadra, we help ambitious organizations grow through Data, AI and People. We support suppliers, wholesalers, and retail organizations in building the organizational, technical and cultural foundation needed for digital transformation, operational excellence and compliance.
Let’s talk!
