What Is a Digital Product Passport and Why Is It Becoming Mandatory?

If you are responsible for product management, quality, compliance, ESG, or product data in a manufacturing company, the digital product passport should be on your radar. In selected areas and industries, it will become a legal requirement in the EU.

For customers, it will usually be a QR code placed on the product or packaging. For your company, it means structured data on composition, origin, durability, repair, recycling, and the product’s environmental impact.

It is another obligation, but a well-prepared DPP can also help in conversations with retail chains, audits, exports, complaints, and collecting data from suppliers.

A digital product passport is a digital set of information assigned to a product, model, batch, or individual item. It can be accessed through a QR code, NFC, barcode, or another data carrier.

The European Commission describes the DPP as a digital identity card for a product. It stores data on environmental impact, recyclability, and sustainability-related parameters across the product’s life cycle. DPP is part of the ESPR, the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which entered into force on July 18, 2024.

A DPP may include, among other things:

In short, a digital product passport shows what a product is made of, how it was produced, how long it can last, and what should happen to it at the end of its life.

DPP stands for Digital Product Passport.

It is more than adding a QR code. A DPP requires product data to be complete, up to date, verifiable, and assigned to the right product.

This matters because production data is still often scattered across sources such as:

Not all data will be public. Some will be visible to the customer, some to a business partner, some to a service team, and some to a market surveillance authority. The European Commission indicates that data should be shared with different groups according to their access rights.

That is why DPP implementation has to start with organizing data.

The European Union wants to reduce the sale of products that are short-lived, difficult to repair, poorly described, and hard to recycle.

The new rules are meant to support longer-lasting products, easier repair, better material recovery, and greater transparency for customers. The ESPR working plan for 2025-2030 includes, among others, steel, aluminum, textiles, furniture, tires, mattresses, and energy-related products.

The data shows where the pressure for change comes from. In the EU, around 5.8 million tons of textiles are discarded every year, about 11.3 kg per person. Only 1% of the material used globally to produce clothing is recycled back into new clothing.

Batteries are a similar case. New rules cover the entire battery life cycle: from sourcing materials to collection, recycling, and reuse. The European Commission indicates that the regulations are intended to reduce the environmental impact of batteries and support a more competitive, sustainable battery market in Europe.

DPP is meant to help in three areas:

If we had to give one simple answer, it would be: it depends on the product group.

ESPR has applied since July 18, 2024, but detailed requirements will be adopted in stages. The European Commission has adopted the ESPR and Energy Labeling Working Plan for 2025-2030. The first group includes, among others, steel, aluminum, textiles with a focus on apparel, furniture, tires, and mattresses.

The most specific date at this point concerns batteries. Under Article 77 of the Battery Regulation, from February 18, 2027, the battery passport will apply to LMT batteries, industrial batteries with a capacity above 2 kWh, and electric vehicle batteries.

For other categories, companies will need to follow the implementing and delegated acts for each product type. If your company works with textiles, furniture, batteries, steel, aluminum, tires, electronics, or energy-related products, do not wait until the last moment.

DPP will not apply only to large EU manufacturers. The obligations may affect anyone placing covered products on the EU market.

Most often, this will include:

If you sell a product on the EU market and that category becomes subject to the digital product passport, you need to have the data. Even if part of your production takes place outside Europe.

The scope of data will vary for batteries, apparel, furniture, tires, or electronics. That is why it is worth starting with a similar information map.

For batteries, the data catalog is already broad. It includes, among other things, the manufacturer, compliance, carbon footprint, material composition, resource efficiency, durability, performance, and data needed for recycling.

The customer scans a QR code and sees the composition, country of production, care instructions, material certificate, and information on where to return the product after use.

From the company’s perspective, this includes the fabric supplier, material batch, documents confirming composition, and change history.

A DPP can show the type of wood, metal, foam, and fabric, disassembly instructions, a list of replacement parts, and information for service teams and recyclers.

For the customer, this means more confidence in the purchase. For the manufacturer, it means less manual answering of questions from business partners.

Starting in 2027, the battery passport will be one of the first specific examples of a product passport. It may include carbon footprint, material composition, capacity, durability, manufacturer data, and information needed for further use or recycling.

The biggest change will not be visible on the label. It will be visible inside your company.

A digital product passport requires cooperation between departments that often work separately:

If this data does not meet in one place, preparing the passport will become expensive and slow.

For the board or business owner, this creates a very specific risk: delayed market entry, harder conversations with large buyers, more manual work, and more stress during inspections. The problem rarely starts with the QR code itself. It usually starts earlier, when you need to prove where the data comes from and whether it is current.

That is why preparation for the product passport should start with central product data management: collecting information from many sources, organizing documents, and defining which version of the data is current. It is a good moment to check whether your current tools support working with data or simply add more manual copying.

Review your portfolio and mark products that may fall under the digital product passport first: textiles, furniture, mattresses, tires, steel, aluminum, batteries, and electronics.

Check what information you already have and where it is stored. Include technical data sheets, certificates, supplier declarations, material data, repair instructions, and quality documents.

The most common gaps are missing data on material origin, missing supplier confirmations, lack of change history, and no single current version of product information.

Each type of data should have a person responsible for it. Otherwise, the passport can quickly become a task everyone knows about, but nobody owns.

Choose one product and prepare a test passport. You will see how much data you really have, how much still needs to be collected, and where the process stops.

DPP will cover the entire value chain. The supplier of fabric, foam, metal, cells, or packaging will also need to provide data in a clear format.

Details will appear in stages, but you can start organizing product data now.

Technology will help, but first you need to know what data is required and who is responsible for it.

The QR code is the entry point to information. The real work happens in data, documents, and processes.

The product, supplier, and composition can change. You need to know which data version applies to each batch.

Choose the person responsible for DPP. Check which products may be covered by the requirements first. Prepare a simple table: product, category, available data, gaps, owner.

Run a pilot for one product. Collect material data, certificates, quality documents, instructions, and supplier information.

Define the data update process. Decide where the single source of product information will be. Prepare a supplier requirements template and check which systems need to be connected.

If you want to prepare your company for DPP without manually collecting data from many files, start by organizing product information in one place. That is where the digital product passport begins.

A digital product passport is a digital set of product data, usually accessible through a QR code or another data carrier. It contains information about composition, origin, durability, repair, recycling, and compliance.

DPP stands for Digital Product Passport.

ESPR entered into force on July 18, 2024, but detailed timelines depend on the product category. For certain batteries, the passport will be required from February 18, 2027.

Yes, if the product is placed on the European Union market.

No. Some data will be visible to the customer, some to partners, some to service teams, and some only to market surveillance authorities.

Start with a product data map. Check what you have, what is missing, who owns the data, and how you collect information from suppliers. Then prepare a pilot for one product.