Handing over responsibility

When a product line is sold, or a product is remanufactured or repurposed, responsibility for its passport can move to another economic operator. The node records the handover on the passport itself, so the change of hands is part of the record rather than an email thread.

The four steps

odal passport transfer initiate <id> …   # the outgoing operator signs the handover
odal passport transfer accept   <id>     # the node signs the acceptance and completes it
odal passport transfer reject   <id>     # refused: ends the handover
odal passport transfer cancel   <id>     # withdrawn: ends the handover

• Initiate records both parties (each one’s DID, legal name, supply-chain role and country), the reason and an optional note, and signs the handover with the outgoing operator’s key. Only a published passport can be handed over, and the outgoing DID must match the current head of the chain.
• Accept completes it. The acceptance is signed by the hosting node’s key, not by the incoming operator’s.
• Reject or cancel ends a pending handover and frees the chain for another.

What a verifier can check

The transfer chain travels in the passport’s evidence dossier. A verifier checks the outgoing operator’s signature against that operator’s DID, and the acceptance against the hosting node’s DID. That proves the handover was recorded as stated; it does not claim a two-party signature, because the incoming operator does not sign.

Who holds the obligations

ESPR has no single article setting out transfer mechanics. The record here is an engineering choice; who holds the obligations for a product is ultimately what the EU registry records. See ESPR Overview.

Read next

• A passport’s lifecycle: the other states a passport moves through.
• Proof files and verification: how the chain is checked.