DPP Hub
The EU digital product passport, explained
The digital product passport becomes mandatory category by category from 2027, starting with batteries. Start here: the regulation, the standards, and how to comply.
Start here
regulation
EU DPP regulation timeline
The EU digital product passport (DPP) becomes mandatory category by category from 2027, starting with batteries.
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What a digital product passport actually contains
A digital product passport is not a QR code and not a PDF. What the EU requires inside it, who reads which part, and when it has to exist.
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What has to be ready before your category's date
Ten steps to digital product passport readiness, in the order they have to happen. Most of the work is supplier data, and it takes 12 to 18 months.
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regulation
Steel and aluminium are first in line for the DPP, not fashion
The first ESPR delegated act is expected for iron and steel, ahead of textiles. What that means if you make or source metal parts.
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The battery passport is due 18 February 2027, and it is not ESPR
The battery passport is mandatory from 18 February 2027 under the EU Battery Regulation, a separate law from ESPR. Who it covers and what follows it.
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The collection you are designing now is the first one that will need a passport
Fashion works two to three seasons ahead, so the textile DPP rules expected around 2027 to 2028 already apply to products on the desk today.
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A delegated act is not a deadline: how to read the 18 month transition
The gap between a delegated act and the day the obligation binds is 18 to 36 months. That gap is the whole preparation window, and it is smaller than it sounds.
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Six product groups are scheduled for a passport, and most companies only know about two
Textiles, furniture, mattresses, tyres, iron and steel and aluminium are all in the ESPR working plan. Electronics follows later, construction runs on CPR.
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The unsold stock ban is already in force, and it runs on passport data
Since 19 July 2026 large companies cannot destroy unsold textiles and footwear in the EU, and must disclose annually what they discarded. Same data as the DPP.
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regulation
The EU DPP Registry is an index, not a database
The EU registry does not store your product data. It links each identifier to where the passport actually lives, and that part stays your responsibility.
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Registration starts with verifying your company, not your product
The EU registry only accepts companies verified in advance with a qualified electronic seal. That step takes weeks, and it happens before any product data.
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Two enforcement tracks run at once, and only one of them is a regulator
Inaccurate passport data exposes you to national penalties and, separately, to consumer compensation claims. That makes passport accuracy a liability question.
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Your passport has to survive your vendor going out of business
EU law requires a back-up copy of the digital product passport held through a service provider. Most buyers never ask what happens if the provider disappears.
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The registry is live and its rules apply: what changed in 2026
The EU DPP Registry became operational in July 2026 and the implementing rules apply from 6 August 2026. The DPP stopped being a future deadline.
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Who actually checks your passport, and when
Market surveillance authorities, customs, and consumers each verify a different thing at a different moment. Knowing which is which tells you what to prepare.
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standard
What a textile passport has to carry, and where each field comes from
The fields a textile DPP requires fall into four groups, and three of the four live with suppliers rather than in your own systems.
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A QR code is not a digital product passport
The QR code is the carrier. The passport is the verifiable record behind it. Vendors selling the first as the second are selling you a rebuild.
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The passport is a process, not a file
A record assembled once is wrong within a season. What changes when you treat the DPP as something that stays current rather than something you submit.
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The passport does not store customer data
Product information in a DPP is anonymous by law and personal customer data is explicitly excluded. Teams reviewing it as a marketing tool stall for no reason.
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The eight standards under the passport, six of them now published
Six of the eight CEN-CENELEC DPP standards are cited in the Official Journal since July 2026. What each one decides, and what is still open.
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One passport, four readers, four different views
The operator, the consumer, authorities, and repairers each see a different layer of the same record. Designing for only one of them fails the first audit.
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You may add data beyond the minimum, with one condition
Voluntary data points are allowed in a DPP provided they do not compromise accuracy or interoperability and are clearly distinguished from mandatory fields.
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The EU has already built a reference architecture for the passport
CIRPASS-2 published a reference architecture for digital product passports. It is not law, but it is what interoperability will be judged against.
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Product, operator and facility: three identifiers, not one
A passport needs identifiers for the product, the economic operator and the facility. They have different lifecycles, and most systems assume there is only one.
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Where the passport actually lives
The DPP architecture is hybrid: a central EU registry of identifiers, and decentralised data held by operators. That split decides your obligations.
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How a consumer actually reaches a passport, including without a smartphone
Scanning is the easiest route, but the EU web portal, marketplace product pages, in-store kiosks and a printed copy on request are all part of the picture.
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how-to
No data, no sale: the passport arrives through procurement first
The compliance date is not when the cost starts. Buyers ask for product data before regulators do, and a supplier who cannot answer loses the tender.
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Who owns the digital product passport inside your company?
Nearly a quarter of European companies surveyed have not assigned the DPP to anyone. It sits between four functions, which is exactly why it stalls.
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The passport is a market access risk, not an IT project
A DPP decides whether a product can be sold in the EU at all. Filed under IT it competes with every other ticket. Owned as sales continuity it gets a deadline.
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Selling into the EU from outside it still needs a passport
The DPP applies to imported products wherever they are made. No passport, no release at the border, and marketplaces carry obligations too.
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Compliance does not need a six-figure IT budget, and the law says so
Article 22 of the Ecodesign Regulation requires SME support before any DPP rule applies: guidelines, free digital tools, national one-stop shops.
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What the passport changes in day-to-day operations
Beyond compliance, the passport digitises compliance documents, standardises supplier data exchange, and changes how you answer buyers. Some of that is upside.
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Readiness is a deadline problem, not an awareness problem
97 percent of surveyed European companies have heard of the DPP. Only a third say they understand what it requires of them. The gap is data, not information.
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At what point in the supply chain does the passport apply?
The passport must be active and registered when a product is placed on the EU market. What that means for components, semi-finished goods and B2B suppliers.
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how-to
Why we built Junction around a live record
A passport assembled the month before a deadline is out of date the moment a supplier changes. The design decision that follows from that, and what it costs.
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There are two ways to price a passport, and the difference is the product
One code per item and one code per model are different products with different economics. Which one you need depends on whether you want per-object identity.
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The passport should follow the product to its second owner
Resale, warranty and refurbishment all depend on knowing who holds an item. A chain of custody is what turns a passport into infrastructure for circular models.
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One code, two jobs: a passport and a proof that the product is real
Sustainability data on a product anyone can copy is data about a category. Binding authenticity to the passport closes a gap the regulation leaves open.
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What a passport service provider owes you under the regulation
The ESPR defines the DPP service provider role and constrains it: no reuse of your data, a mandated back-up copy, and a possible future certification scheme.
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standard
IEC 61406 identification link
IEC 61406 defines the structured identification link that connects a physical product to its digital passport via a QR code.
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GLN and EORI for DPP operators
GLN and EORI identify the economic operators behind a digital product passport, as required by EU rules.
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