A market actor is the broad legal term that the regulation uses for any business that places tyres on the market, imports, trades in or distributes them. It is a collective concept: manufacturer, importer, authorised representative and distributor all fall under it, each with their own role and own responsibilities within that role.
The concept is not the same as 'data provider', a term more commonly used in the practice of the digital product passport for whoever actually supplies the data. Market actor is the broader, formal status from the regulation itself; data provider describes who in practice compiles the information. A business can be a market actor without being a data provider itself, for example when an importer has the data supplied by the manufacturer.
Which roles fall under market actor
The regulation distinguishes a number of specific positions within the concept of market actor. The manufacturer is who designs the tyre or has it produced under their own name. The importer places tyres from outside the EU on the European market for the first time. The distributor trades in tyres further down the chain, without having produced or imported them themselves. The authorised representative is a party within the EU acting on behalf of a manufacturer outside the EU. Each of these positions entails a different responsibility for what must appear in the passport and who is accountable for it.
For a business that purchases tyres and resells them, what matters above all is whether it acts as a distributor or as an importer. This distinction determines whether the business itself must supply data, or can rely on the passport that an earlier link in the chain has already compiled.
Why the distinction matters for your business
The regulation imposes the heaviest obligations on the party that places the product on the European market for the first time. Whoever merely resells tyres that are already provided with a valid passport generally has a lighter role than whoever imports tyres themselves or has them produced under their own brand. In inspections, supervisory authorities look at who actually fulfils which role, not only at what appears on the invoice or in the webshop.
This makes it important for fleet managers, fitting companies and wholesalers to have a clear understanding of which role applies to their own purchasing and sales process. A business that orders tyres directly from a manufacturer outside the EU and imports them itself may fulfil the role of importer, even if that is not what seems like the daily course of business.
Multiple roles at the same time
It is possible for one business to be a distributor for one assortment and an importer for another, for example when part of the tyres is sourced directly from a country outside the EU and another part via a European wholesaler. The regulation assesses that per product stream, not per business as a whole.
How to determine which role applies to your business
Determining your own role starts with an overview of where the tyres come from and who places them on the market in the EU for the first time. This overview does not need to be complicated, but it does require a clear-eyed look at your own procurement relationships. For those who do not yet have this overview clear, in a few questions see which role fits your situation provides a first point of reference.
The full text of the regulation and the precise definition of each role are, together with the location on EUR-Lex, worked out per subject in the knowledge base with all topics per situation. Those who want to know how tyrepas.eu processes data from manufacturer or importer into a passport will find that on the page where the information in the passport comes from.
Because the division into roles affects who is responsible for the content of the passport, it is advisable to consult a lawyer if you are in doubt about your own situation or to submit the question to the competent supervisory authority. This article describes the division as used by the regulation, but does not make a statement about the role of a specific company.
Would you like to quickly see which questions belong to your own procurement and sales process? The free quick-scan provides an initial indication, and the answers to questions that other companies have already asked show which doubts most frequently arise for companies that purchase or resell tyres.