The EU DPP Registry is open. Here is how registration works.

On 19 July 2026 the European Commission’s central Digital Product Passport registry opened for registration. It is the index the EU will use to know which passports exist, who is behind them and where they are held — and it is the checkpoint customs and market surveillance will query. Registration happens at two levels: once for you as an economic operator, and once per passport you issue. Here is what each level involves, when it becomes mandatory, and how to avoid doing it by hand.

Last updated: 8 August 2026

In one line: economic operators placing in-scope products on the EU market must register themselves once and then file reference data — identifiers, commodity code, hosting reference — for every passport they issue; the registry opened 19 July 2026 and batteries make it mandatory from 18 February 2027.

Who must register

Registration falls on the economic operator placing an in-scope product on the EU market — the EU manufacturer, or for goods made outside the EU, the importer. Before any unit of an in-scope product is placed on the market, its passport’s reference data must be filed in the central registry. Which products are “in scope” follows the phase-in: batteries under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 form the first mandatory wave, and ESPR product groups (iron & steel expected first, then textiles and others) follow as their delegated acts take effect. Distributors and retailers who merely resell do not register — but they will increasingly ask their suppliers for proof that someone did.

Step one: registering as an operator

Before filing passports, an operator identifies itself to the registry — establishing who you are as a legal entity and obtaining the credentials under which your passport submissions will be made. The Commission’s onboarding builds on its existing EU-level authentication infrastructure, and the exact procedure is still being refined as the registry ramps up, so treat any step-by-step description you find as provisional. What is stable is the principle: one operator registration, verified identity, and all subsequent per-passport filings tied to it. Doing this early — well before your first deadline — is cheap insurance against onboarding queues in late 2026.

Step two: registering each passport

Per passport, the registry expects a compact set of reference data rather than the passport’s full content. Under the draft implementing rules — still subject to finalisation — this centres on:

The unique identifiers — the product (and where applicable batch or item) identifiers the passport is issued under.
The commodity code — the customs classification, which is what lets customs systems match shipments to registrations.
A reference to where the passport is held — including the DPP service provider hosting it, if one is used.
Integrity data — material enabling verification that the passport is authentic and untampered, which is where a qualified eIDAS seal on the passport earns its keep.

The registry then serves as the EU’s lookup: scan a product’s identifier, find the registration, resolve to the live passport.

Doing this at scale — without doing it by hand

One registration is a form; ten thousand SKUs and batches are a data pipeline. This is why registry filing should be a property of your passport platform, not a separate chore. PassPer builds the passport from documents you already have — AI extraction with human review — signs it with a qualified eIDAS seal, hosts it on EU-sovereign infrastructure, and files the registration data for each passport as part of publication. First mandatory deadline: 18 February 2027 for EV, LMT and >2 kWh industrial batteries. If those are in your products, the registry being open means your clock is now visibly running — start with the free readiness check.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to register now that the registry is open?

The registry opening on 19 July 2026 means registration is possible, not that it is universally required. The obligation bites when your product group’s rules take effect — for battery passports that is 18 February 2027, and for ESPR product groups roughly 18 months after each delegated act enters into force. Registering operator details early, however, removes a bottleneck later.

What exactly gets registered — the whole passport?

No. The registry stores a limited set of reference data per passport — unique identifiers, the commodity code and a reference to where the passport itself is held — not the full passport content. The passport data stays with the operator or its DPP service provider; the registry is the EU’s index for finding and verifying it.

Can our software provider register passports for us?

Yes — per-passport submission is a machine-to-machine task well suited to automation, and the framework anticipates service providers acting on operators’ behalf. The legal responsibility for the registration being made, and being accurate, stays with the economic operator placing the product on the market.

What happens if a product reaches the EU border without a registration?

The registry is designed to let customs check that an in-scope product has a registered passport identifier. Once the obligation applies to your product group, a missing registration means the product cannot lawfully be placed on the market — customs can detain goods and authorities can order withdrawal. Member states set the penalties.

See where you stand — three ways, all free.

Take the 2-minute readiness check, watch the 10-minute interactive walkthrough, or download the full 2026 compliance guide. No account needed.

Free readiness check → See it in action Get the guide (PDF)