A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a structured, machine-readable record of a product's identity, composition, compliance and circularity data, made accessible through a data carrier — usually a QR code — on the product itself. It was established as a horizontal requirement under the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR 2024/1781).
The DPP is the data backbone of the EU's circular-economy agenda. It exists to make products' environmental and compliance information transparent and comparable across the single market — so a buyer, a recycler or a customs officer can see what a product is made of, whether it complies, and how to repair or recycle it. ESPR entered into force in July 2024 and switches the requirement on group by group through delegated acts.
The exact fields are set per product group, but every passport draws from the same families:
A passport is published behind a GS1 Digital Link — a standards-based URL encoded in a QR or Data Matrix on the product. Scanning it resolves to the passport, and the resolver serves each audience an access-tier-appropriate view: a public view for consumers, a professional view for repairers and recyclers, and an authority view for market surveillance. Identifiers are registered in the EU DPP Registry, and every published version is cryptographically sealed so tampering is detectable.
There is no single go-live date — obligations arrive in waves. The EU Battery Passport is first, mandatory from 18 February 2027. Textiles, electronics, furniture and other groups follow under ESPR through the late 2020s. The central EU DPP Registry opened for registration on 19 July 2026. See the full deadline table.
The obligation sits with the economic operator that places the product on the EU market — the manufacturer, or, for goods made outside the EU, the importer or an appointed authorised representative. It cannot be delegated. Read the full breakdown by role.
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