What is a delegated act and why does it determine what I must do?

A supplementary rule that the Commission establishes under the ESPR

A delegated act is a detailed rule that the European Commission establishes to supplement a regulation such as the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) for a specific product category. The ESPR itself is a framework regulation: it governs the system, the powers and the procedure, but does not lay down which requirements exactly apply to iron, steel, textiles or electronics. That concrete specification — which information must appear in a digital product passport, which sustainability requirements apply, from when — comes per product category in a separate delegated act. Article 4 of the ESPR gives the Commission the power to adopt such acts, and Article 8 describes what they may contain: requirements for performance, for information, and for the content of the product passport. As long as that act does not exist for a product category, the obligation does not yet exist in substance — the ESPR provides the framework, the delegated act provides the content.

Applies per product category, not all at once

This system applies to products that fall within the scope of the ESPR, but not automatically and not all at the same time. The Commission works product category by product category: first, which categories are given priority is determined, then for each category a separate delegated act follows with its own requirements and its own timeline. This means that an act for, for example, batteries or textiles says nothing about what will apply to iron and steel — that is determined separately. It also means that the ESPR by itself, without an adopted delegated act for a product category, does not yet create a concrete obligation for producers or importers in that category. What is already established is the process: how the Commission arrives at those acts and what they must contain is regulated in the basic regulation itself.

No fixed date yet for iron and steel

There is currently no published delegated act for iron and steel, and no date is fixed for when one will come. What is established is the procedure that precedes it: the Commission draws up a work programme and determines in it, on the basis of prioritisation, which product categories are to be addressed first. Article 18 of the ESPR describes that planning and prioritisation. Until a delegated act for iron and steel is adopted and published, the concrete requirements of Article 8 — such as requirements for the product passport — do not yet apply to this product category. As soon as the Commission adopts an act, this platform will include the date and its content as soon as it is known.

What this means, in the order you should tackle it

The first step is to check whether a delegated act has already been adopted for your own product category — this is done via official EU sources, and that is different from reading the ESPR itself, because the regulation only provides the framework. If that act does not yet exist, there is also no concrete obligation from the ESPR for those products; what there is, is the prospect that that obligation will come, with content that is expected to align with what Article 8 names as possible components: information on composition, origin, recycled content, repair and recycling possibilities. The second step, even without the act being in place yet, is to check which data on your own product or semi-finished product are already available and which still need to be collected — origin of raw materials, composition, any certifications, technical documentation. That kind of data often forms the basis of a product passport in practice, regardless of the precise requirements that follow later. The third step is to follow the planning: via the work programme of the Commission, as referred to in Article 18, it becomes clear which product categories are to be addressed when, and that gives an indication of when an act for iron and steel is to be expected.

What this is based on: Article 4, Article 8 and Article 18 of the ESPR

The Commission's authority to adopt delegated acts within the framework of the ESPR is derived from Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781. What such an act can substantively regulate — the requirements for products and the information in the digital product passport — is described in Article 8. How the Commission determines which product groups are addressed and when is set out in Article 18, which concerns prioritisation and planning. Together, these articles demonstrate that the ESPR is a framework that becomes concrete only per product group, and that this specification requires a separate, published decision.

Those wishing to prepare now for a future obligation for iron or steel can best start by putting their own data on origin, composition and processing in order, and keep an eye on the publication of the Commission's work programme. As soon as a delegated act for this product group is published, the content and date will be added here.

What this is based on

The regulation itself can be found on EUR-Lex. We provide references for each statement; you do not have to take our word for it.

What you must concretely do

What is expected of you

The ESPR itself, Article 4, gives the European Commission the power to adopt delegated acts per product category. This means that the regulation itself is a framework law: it sets out the rules of the game, the procedure and the limits, but not the specific requirements for steel or any other product category. Those specific requirements only come with a delegated act that specifically concerns steel (or a category of steel products). Until that act is published, there is no passport obligation for the steel sector that can be complied with — simply because the content does not yet exist.

Understanding that the ESPR is a framework, not a list of requirements

For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this means above all that reading the ESPR text itself provides no answer to the question "what must my product contain in future". Article 8 of the ESPR lists which topics a delegated act can cover: sustainability requirements, information obligations, the content of the passport, and more. But the actual standards, thresholds and data fields for steel are not in there — those only follow from the act that the Commission draws up for this product category. Anyone now looking for specific obligations will find an empty box in the ESPR itself. More on the scope of the regulation is described on the page on which products from the steel sector fall under the ESPR.

Follow when the act for steel is published

Article 18 of the ESPR governs how the Commission prioritizes which product categories are first in line and according to what schedule. For a company, the practical consequence is that there is a work plan in which product categories are designated, but that the actual publication date of the act for steel depends on how that process unfolds. A company that wants to act on this in good time would be well advised to follow the Commission's announcements rather than wait for a concrete letter or notice. If there is already an indication of when this will apply to steel, that is described on the page on when the product passport becomes mandatory for steel.

Realizing that the content is only established with the act

Once a delegated act for steel has been adopted, it will establish which data must be included in the passport, how that data is to be measured or determined and from which point the obligation takes effect. Until then, any assumption about weight, composition, origin or CO2 values that "must go in the passport later" is an educated guess, based on what has already been established for other product categories (such as batteries or textiles). This can be a useful reference point for preparation, but it is not an established fact. More on what is already known about the expected content is on the page on which data will be included in the steel product passport.

Where things go wrong in practice

A number of misconceptions come up repeatedly in practice.

First, the ESPR is sometimes read as a directly applicable list of requirements, after which a company concludes that it "must already" comply with certain standards. This is a misunderstanding: without a delegated act for its own product category, there are no specific standards to comply with.

Second, a delegated act for a different sector — for example batteries, which is further along in the process — is sometimes mistakenly seen as a harbinger that will literally apply to steel. The acts are drawn up per product category and can differ considerably from one another in scope and detail.

Third, companies sometimes panic over reporting about "the ESPR deadline" without it being clear which product category is concerned. Because each product category gets its own act and its own timeline, a deadline for one sector says nothing about the date for steel.

Fourthly, the distinction between a delegated act and an implementing act is often overlooked; both are instruments of the Commission, but they have a different legal function within the ESPR. For practical purposes, it is particularly important which type of act will establish the substantive requirements for steel — and that is the delegated act, as referred to in Article 4 and 8.

Fifthly, there is sometimes confusion about whether a semi-finished product of steel will at all fall under such an act in the future. This is a question that will be answered per product group description in the future act, and cannot be derived from the ESPR text itself. Anyone who is uncertain whether their own products will fall within the scope in the future will find background information on the page about semi-finished products of steel and the product passport.

What you can document

Even before the delegated act for steel has been published, it is practical to arrange a number of things:

An overview of your own product groups and their classification, so that it can be quickly determined which delegated act will be relevant in the future.
A log of followed publications and announcements by the European Commission on the work programme set out in Article 18, with date and source.
An internal responsible person or function that monitors the progress of the ESPR work programme and alerts when a consultation or draft text for steel appears.
A file with data that are already available on the origin, composition and processing of your own steel, so that a future data request does not start from scratch.
Agreements with suppliers and customers about who keeps which data, in anticipation of the question who will be allowed to access which data from the product passport in the future — a subject that is explained further on the page about who may access which data from the product passport.

As soon as the delegated act for steel has been published, this overview immediately becomes the basis for assessing what specifically changes, rather than the process having to start from zero.

This is not legal advice. This page provides general information about the legislation that this platform deals with. We do not know your situation. If you are in doubt about your own case, consult a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.

Written with AI based on the sources above, checked by a human on 2026-08-22. Is something not right? Let us know — corrections are given priority.