For most products, the Digital Product Passport is reached by scanning a code on the product — usually a QR code. But it is not an ordinary QR: it follows a standard, resolves to different views for different people, and has to keep working for years.
It needs a data carrier, and in practice that is almost always a QR code. ESPR requires the passport to be accessible through a carrier on the product, its packaging or its documentation. A QR code is the common choice; a GS1 Data Matrix or an NFC tag are permitted alternatives.
The code does not hold the passport data itself — it holds a link. Specifically a GS1 Digital Link URL keyed to the product's GTIN, optionally with a serial number for item-level passports. Scanning it resolves, through a resolver, to the current passport. Because the data lives at the URL and not in the code, the passport can be updated without reprinting a single label.
The resolver serves an access-tier-appropriate view. A consumer sees the public view — origin, materials, care and recycling. A repairer or recycler with professional access sees more. Market-surveillance authorities see the full record. One code, three audiences.
The carrier has to print reliably at label size and resolve to a reachable host for the product's regulated lifetime — up to 15 years. A QR that points at a dead URL is a compliance failure, not a passport, which is why long-term, independent hosting matters as much as the code itself.
A standard QR code suits most consumer products. A GS1 Data Matrix is more compact for small items and industrial labels. NFC or RFID adds tap-to-verify and logistics use. PassPer generates real GS1 Digital Link carriers and checks they resolve before you print.
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