--- title: How are the Economic Operator and Facility identified in an EU-DPP? description: Learn how SyncForce identifies the responsible Economic Operator and manufacturing Facility in an EU-DPP using LEI, EUID, VTA identifiers and GLN. --- [Skip to content](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/how-are-the-economic-operator-and-facility-identified-in-an-eu-dpp#main-content) [![Syncforce\_logo\_tagline](https://support.syncforce.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Syncforce_logo_tagline.webp?width=480&height=72&name=Syncforce_logo_tagline.webp)](https://www.syncforce.com/) Open main navigation Close main navigation Hello. How can we help you? - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Home](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge?hsLang=en) 2. [Industry & Regulatory Knowledge](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/industry-regulatory-knowledge?hsLang=en) 3. [EU Digital Product Passport - DPP](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/industry-regulatory-knowledge?hsLang=en#eu-digital-product-passport-dpp) # How are the Economic Operator and Facility identified in an EU-DPP? #### Short answer An EU-DPP needs to distinguish **who is legally responsible for the Product** from **where the Product was manufactured**. SyncForce therefore models these as separate objects: - **Economic Operator**: the legal entity responsible for placing the Product on the EU market - **Facility**: the physical manufacturing site associated with production of the Product For the Economic Operator, SyncForce uses: 1. **LEI**, where available 2. otherwise the national business register number expressed as **EUID** 3. otherwise a VTA Economic Operator ID using **18V** For the Facility, SyncForce uses: 1. **GLN of the physical site**, where available 2. otherwise a VTA Facility ID using **25L** The legal entity, physical location and Product therefore each retain their own identity. --- #### What is the Economic Operator in an EU-DPP? The Economic Operator is the legal entity responsible for the EU-DPP. Depending on the regulatory situation, this can be: - the manufacturer - the authorised representative - the importer It is the party responsible for placing the Product on the EU market and for the regulatory information associated with that Product. The Economic Operator is therefore not necessarily: - the brand owner - the manufacturing Facility - the packer - the distributor - the retailer These may be the same organisation in some supply chains, but they represent different roles. --- #### Why does the Economic Operator need its own identifier? The Product identifier answers: **Which Product is this?** The Economic Operator identifier answers: **Which legal entity is responsible for it?** Those are different questions. For example: **Product Model** `VTA-MPLA-PM-346UJI3NUM` may identify a battery model. The organisation legally responsible for that Product may be: **Company A** That company requires its own legal-entity identifier. SyncForce therefore does not derive the Economic Operator identity from the Product Model, GTIN or Facility. --- #### Which identifier does SyncForce use for the Economic Operator? SyncForce uses existing legal-entity identifiers where possible. The preferred order is: 1\. LEI The **Legal Entity Identifier**, LEI, is the preferred identifier where the legal entity already has one. An LEI is a globally unique identifier for a legal entity. Example: `506700GE1G29325QX363` SyncForce stores the LEI with the organisation and can use it as the Economic Operator identifier in the EU-DPP. --- #### What happens if there is no LEI? Where no LEI exists, SyncForce can use the legal entity's national business register identifier expressed as an **EUID**, European Unique Identifier. The EUID links the legal entity to the relevant national business register. This provides an existing legal identity rather than creating another identifier unnecessarily. --- #### What happens when neither LEI nor EUID is available? SyncForce can issue a VTA Economic Operator identifier. This uses: 18V + VTA Economic Operator ID Conceptually: `18V + VTA-EO` The resolver representation can be: `?.18V={VTA-EO}` This provides a persistent globally managed identity where an appropriate existing legal-entity identifier is not available. --- #### Why does SyncForce not use a GLN for the Economic Operator? SyncForce deliberately keeps legal-entity identity and location identity separate. A **GLN** is used for physical locations in this architecture. Using the same type of identifier interchangeably for: - a legal entity - a factory - another location can make the meaning of an identifier ambiguous. SyncForce therefore uses: **LEI, EUID or VTA-EO** for the Economic Operator and: **GLN or VTA-FA** for the Facility. The object type remains explicit. --- #### Why does SyncForce not use a VAT number? A VAT number is not an ideal universal legal-entity identifier. A legal entity may have more than one VAT registration, for example in different countries. A VAT number can therefore represent a tax registration rather than the underlying legal entity itself. For that reason, SyncForce keeps VAT information separate from the persistent Economic Operator identity. --- #### What is a Facility in the EU-DPP? A Facility is a physical location involved in the Product value chain. The exact Facility information required for an EU-DPP can depend on the applicable Product regulation or delegated act. For the SyncForce Golden Hierarchy, the working definition is: > **Facility = the manufacturing site of the Product itself.** This is the site where the unpacked Product is manufactured or receives its final assembly before being packed into its commercial Sales Unit. --- #### What is not the Product Facility? Under this working definition, the Product Facility is not automatically: - the site that only packs or co-packs the Product - a warehouse - a distribution centre - the plant manufacturing the Packaging - the Economic Operator's head office Those locations may still be relevant elsewhere in the supply chain or under a specific regulation. But they should not automatically replace the manufacturing Facility of the Product itself. --- #### Can one Product Model have more than one Facility? Yes. A Product Model can be manufactured at several sites. For example: **Product Model A** may be produced at: - Facility 1 in Germany - Facility 2 in Poland - Facility 3 in Spain This means Facility can depend on the actual production context. SyncForce therefore associates Facility with the appropriate production level. Where relevant, this may be: - Batch - Serialized Item A Facility can be associated directly with the Product Model when the Product is only manufactured at one site. --- #### How does SyncForce identify a Facility? SyncForce supports two Facility identifiers. Option 1: GLN Where the manufacturing site has a GLN, SyncForce can use the GLN of that physical location. The GS1 Application Identifier for a physical location is: `414` A resolver representation can therefore be: `/414/{GLN}` For example: `https://prodigi.link/414/{GLN}` --- #### What happens when the Facility has no GLN? SyncForce can issue a VTA Facility ID. This uses: 25L + VTA Facility ID For example: `VTA-MPLA-FA-...` represented through: `?.25L={VTA-FA}` This provides a persistent Facility identity without requiring the company to obtain a GLN solely for EU-DPP purposes. --- #### Can SyncForce store both GLN and VTA Facility ID? Yes. A Facility can have both identifiers. For example, SyncForce may know: **GLN** and: **VTA Facility ID** for the same manufacturing site. The EU-DPP can then use the preferred identifier while SyncForce retains the relationship between both identifiers and the same Facility object. The identifiers must not create two different Facility records for one physical site. --- #### Is the Facility part of the Product identifier? No. The Product Model, Facility and Economic Operator remain separate identities. For example: **Product Model** `25P + VTA-PM` **Economic Operator** `LEI`, `EUID` or `18V + VTA-EO` **Facility** `GLN` or `25L + VTA-FA` They are related inside the EU-DPP and the SyncForce Golden Hierarchy, but one does not become the identifier of another. --- #### Where are the Economic Operator and Facility stored in the EU-DPP? They are information elements associated with the EU-DPP. They are not appended to the Product identifier URL simply to make the Product identifier unique. For example, the Product may still be identified by: `https://prodigi.link/?.25P=VTA-MPLA-PM-346UJI3NUM` The EU-DPP associated with that Product can separately state: **Economic Operator** Company A and: **Facility** Factory B This preserves a clean separation between identity and regulatory context. --- #### Why is this separation important when production changes? Consider a Product Model that is initially manufactured at Factory A and later also manufactured at Factory B. The Product Model itself may remain: **Product Model X** The Economic Operator may also remain: **Company Y** But the actual production Facility varies by Batch. The Golden Hierarchy can therefore represent: **Product Model X** ↓ Batch 001 → Factory A Batch 002 → Factory A Batch 003 → Factory B without inventing a new Product Model merely because manufacturing moved to another approved site. --- #### What happens when the manufacturer and Economic Operator are different? That is also possible. For example: **Contract manufacturer** produces the Product at Facility A. But: **Brand owner or importer** may be the Economic Operator responsible for placing the Product on the EU market. The EU-DPP architecture therefore needs to distinguish: **Who manufactured it?** from: **Who is legally responsible for it?** This is another reason not to treat organisation, Product and Facility as one master record. --- #### Are DPP service providers also Economic Operators? They are separate from the Economic Operator responsible for the Product, but they also require their own organisation identities. In the SyncForce architecture: **Perennis** acts as the main DPP service provider and: **SyncForce** acts as the back-up DPP service provider. Their organisation identifiers can therefore be maintained using the same legal-entity identification principles. The Product Economic Operator remains a separate role. --- #### How does this fit into the SyncForce Golden Hierarchy? The Golden Hierarchy keeps four questions separate: **What is it?** Product Model **How is it sold?** Sales Unit **Who is responsible for it?** Economic Operator **Where was it manufactured?** Facility For example: **Economic Operator** ↓ responsible for ↓ **Product Model** ↓ manufactured as ↓ **Batch** ↓ at ↓ **Facility** The Sales Unit and Packaging System can then be connected separately. This prevents commercial, regulatory, organisational and production identities from being collapsed into one object. --- #### How does this relate to the EU-DPP's other identifiers? Economic Operator and Facility identifiers are different from both the Product identifier and the EU-DPP's own identifier. A complete architecture can therefore contain: **Unique Product Identifier** identifies the Product Model, Batch or Serialized Item **Economic Operator ID** identifies the responsible legal entity **Facility ID** identifies the manufacturing location **EU-DPP ID** identifies the passport itself **Registration ID** identifies the EU-DPP registration in the EU DPP registry Each identifier answers a different question. **Read more:** [*Which identifiers are used in an EU-DPP?*](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/which-identifiers-are-used-in-an-eu-dpp?hsLang=en) --- #### What is the SyncForce principle behind this? The SyncForce Golden Hierarchy gives every important real-world object an identity appropriate to that object. A legal entity is not a Product. A Facility is not a legal entity. A Sales Unit is not a Product Model. A Product Model is not its EU-DPP. Keeping those identities separate makes it possible to model complex manufacturing and regulatory supply chains without duplicating Products or misusing identifiers. **See the full overview:** [*How does SyncForce support the EU Digital Product Passport, EU-DPP?*](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/how-does-syncforce-support-the-eu-digital-product-passport?hsLang=en) #### In one sentence **SyncForce identifies the Economic Operator as the legal entity responsible for the Product and the Facility as the physical manufacturing site, keeping both identities separate from the Product Model, Sales Unit and EU-DPP itself.** - [Industry & Regulatory Knowledge](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/industry-regulatory-knowledge?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Product Portfolio](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/industry-regulatory-knowledge?hsLang=en#product-portfolio) - [Packaging & PPWR](https://support.syncforce.com/knowledge/industry-regulatory-knowledge?hsLang=en#packaging-ppwr) - 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