Glossary
Digital Product Passport glossary
The DPP world is full of acronyms. Here are the terms you will meet most often, in plain English.
Core terms
DPP — Digital Product Passport
A structured, machine-readable record of a product's identity, materials, compliance and circularity data, reachable by scanning a carrier on the product.
ESPR — Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation
EU Regulation 2024/1781, in force since July 2024, which established the DPP as a horizontal requirement and switches it on per product group via delegated acts.
Delegated act
The instrument that defines the exact data set and timeline for one product group under ESPR. "The DPP" is really a framework that activates group by group through these acts.
Economic operator
The party that places a product on the EU market and carries the passport obligation — manufacturer, importer, or authorised representative.
Authorised representative
A party appointed by a non-EU manufacturer to assume the economic-operator obligations in the EU, including signing every passport.
GS1 Digital Link
The web-URL standard, keyed to a product's GTIN, encoded in the QR or Data Matrix that resolves to the passport.
GTIN — Global Trade Item Number
The GS1 product identifier that the Digital Link is built around.
Access tiers
Public, professional and authority — the three audience views the same passport serves, enforced at the resolver.
Granularity
Whether a passport is issued per model, per batch or per item. Item-level (one per unit) is required for batteries and is the main cost driver.
Qualified electronic seal (QSealC)
An eIDAS-qualified cryptographic seal on a passport version, required by the EU registry. Produced by a qualified trust service provider (QTSP).
EU DPP Registry
The central index that assigns each passport a persistent registration identifier and issues proof of registration. Opened 19 July 2026.
CBAM — Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
EU Regulation 2023/956; its definitive regime (from Jan 2026) requires embedded-carbon declarations on certain imports, adjacent to the DPP.
Frequently asked questions
What does DPP stand for?
Digital Product Passport — an EU-mandated digital record of a product's identity, materials, compliance and circularity data.
What does ESPR mean?
Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU 2024/1781), the framework that established the Digital Product Passport.
What is a qualified electronic seal?
An eIDAS-qualified cryptographic seal, produced by a qualified trust service provider, that the EU registry requires on every passport version.
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