For most companies, eight to fifteen weeks pass between the moment they start exploring a software provider for the digital product passport and the moment a contract is in place. With a single product category and a contact person who can make decisions quickly, it goes faster. With multiple locations, a purchasing department that wants to compare quotes first, or an IT environment that needs to be mapped out first, this often stretches to several months.
The regulation itself does not prescribe a deadline within which you must select a provider. What is certain, however, is that the obligation to display a passport begins eighteen months after the first delegated act for iron and steel is published. That act is expected in the European Commission's work plan for 2026, but the date is not yet fixed. The lead time of your own selection process therefore counts as part of the time you need to be ready on time, not as an obligation in itself.
What determines the lead time in practice
Three factors explain most of the difference between eight and fifteen weeks. The first is the number of product categories and countries of origin you carry: the more variants, the more questions a provider must answer about connections and data formats. The second is internal decision-making: companies where the director, the purchasing officer and the person supplying the data sit at the table from the start complete the process faster than companies where these roles work separately. The third factor is the existing IT environment. A provider who must integrate with an outdated ERP system needs more time for a technical assessment than a provider working with a modern, well-documented environment.
The steps that determine the timeline
A selection process typically consists of an exploration phase, a request for quotations, a technical review and contract negotiation. The exploration phase, in which you determine which providers exist and what exactly they offer, usually takes one to two weeks. The request for quotations, in which you ask two or three parties for a concrete proposal, often takes three to four weeks, partly because providers themselves need time to understand your situation. The technical review, in which it is examined how the passport integrates with your current administration, is the phase that most often runs over. The contract negotiation itself, including agreements on hosting, liability and data supply, takes an average of another two to three weeks.
Where the process stalls in practice
The most common delay does not occur with the provider, but within your own company. Often it is still unclear who supplies which data: the purchasing officer has the manufacturer's certificates, the quality officer has the test results, and no one has brought this together before. A second recurring bottleneck is uncertainty about your own role in the supply chain: a company that only processes or resells steel has different obligations than a manufacturer or importer, and this also determines which provider and what type of service is appropriate. A third delay occurs when companies wait until the exact obligations are known before selecting a provider, while setting up the data flow and testing a connection actually takes time that you can plan in advance.
Plan ahead without a fixed end date
Because the exact date of application is not yet fixed, it is difficult to set a firm deadline for yourself. However, it is clear that eighteen months after publication of the delegated act leaves little time if you only start selecting a supplier, collecting data and testing an integration then. Companies that now already check what information they have in-house and what questions they want to ask a supplier prevent the selection phase from coinciding with the period in which the obligation has already taken effect. In the knowledge base with explanations per topic describes per situation which data are generally needed and which questions go with them.
Whether your company must take concrete steps at this moment depends on your role in the supply chain, the number of products you carry and the countries you supply. With in a few questions see where you stand you get a first indication without needing an account for it. If you want to know exactly how the data for a dossier are collected and where they come from, read about it at how we collect and process data. For questions that are slightly more specific than this article covers, such as the differences between suppliers or the way a contract is drawn up, answers to practical questions are ready.
This text describes general patterns in selection processes and is not advice about your specific situation or contract. For the exact obligations that apply to your company, and for the current status of the delegated act, the official text of the regulation and the competent supervisory authority are the designated source.
If you want to check where your company stands without obligations, do the free quick-scan or browse through the topics in the knowledge base.