Basics · explained in plain language
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a machine-readable data record that accompanies a product across its entire life cycle – from manufacturing through use and repair to recycling. Accessible via a QR code on the product, legally anchored in the EU Ecodesign Regulation ESPR. Here is everything you need to know – free of legalese.
01 — Definition
For every product in scope, the Digital Product Passport answers, in machine-readable form, the questions: What is it made of? Where does it come from? How sustainable is it? How is it repaired, disassembled, recycled?
Its legal basis is the Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products (ESPR, (EU) 2024/1781), in force since July 2024. For batteries, the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 applies in parallel with the battery passport from February 2027; for construction products, the new Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110.
Which data the passport must contain for each product group is set by the European Commission in delegated acts – you will find the timeline here. Typical mandatory content:
02 — How it works
Four building blocks explain the system – and why DPP readiness is above all a data and integration topic.
01
Every product gets a unique identifier (at model, batch or item level depending on the delegated act, standardised in EN 18219) behind a QR code on the product. Without clean article and batch logic in ERP/PIM, the first problem starts right here.
02
The EU operates no central product database. The passport data stays with the economic operator – with you – and must remain available, current and machine-readable across the life cycle.
03
The EU DPP registry, launching on 19 July 2026, stores identifiers and references, not the data itself. Registration before placing a product on the market is mandatory – details on the EU DPP registry page.
04
Consumers see different data than market surveillance, customs or recyclers. Your data model must capture not only the content but also who is allowed to see what.
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03 — Consequences
Ultimately, the DPP is not a legal project but a data project. The requirements hit exactly the spots where grown system landscapes struggle:
How to tackle this is laid out on two pages: DPP data management (the path from Excel islands to a product data record) and DPP software (buy a platform, extend your PIM or build it yourself?).
04 — FAQ
No. A label is a condensed rating; the DPP is a structured data record with raw information – machine-readable and visible to different audiences at different depths. It can feed labels, but it does not replace them.
No. The data carrier must point to a unique, standardised identifier (EN 18219), the data must be machine-readable and retrievable in standardised formats via open interfaces, and the passport must be registered in the EU registry. An HTML product page or a PDF does not meet that.
Access rights are tiered: consumers see public information such as repair instructions and material data, market surveillance and customs additionally see conformity data, and circular-economy actors see disassembly and recycling information. The exact tiering is set by the delegated act for each product group.
The obligation applies to products placed on the market after the respective cut-off date. What is already on the market is in principle not affected retroactively – the details are set by the respective delegated act.
All three introduce product passports, but on their own legal bases: the ESPR is the broad framework for most product groups, the Battery Regulation led the way with the battery passport in 2027, and the Construction Products Regulation covers construction products separately. Technically they all converge on the same infrastructure: identifiers, QR data carriers, the EU registry, EN standards.
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