The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a digital record that consolidates key information about a product – such as materials, repairability and recyclability – across its entire life cycle and makes it accessible via a data carrier such as a QR code. Its legal basis is the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781).
The digital product passport is like a detailed information leaflet on the internet: anyone who scans the QR code on a product can see what it is made of, how it can be repaired and how it should be disposed of. The EU is gradually making it mandatory for more and more product groups.
Why do I need the Digital Product Passport?
The DPP is part of the EU circular economy strategy and the Green Deal. The aim is to make the sustainability, repairability and recyclability of products transparent along the entire value chain. The underlying Ecodesign Regulation ESPR has been in force since July 2024; which product groups are specifically affected and when is defined by the EU in delegated acts. The Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 leads the way: a battery passport becomes mandatory for certain batteries from February 2027. Further groups such as textiles, electronics, and iron and steel are among the prioritised categories and are expected to follow step by step. All companies selling such products in the EU are affected – regardless of where they are manufactured, which includes importers and online retailers.
Practical relevance for shop and website operators
For e-commerce companies, product data quality thus becomes a compliance issue: material composition, origin, repair and disposal information must be complete, structured and digitally accessible – and linked to the physical item via a unique product identifier (such as a serial number or GTIN). Anyone maintaining product data in scattered spreadsheets today will run into problems here at the latest. The central data hub is usually a PIM system that consolidates data from ERP, supplier portals and the shop. Marketplaces are also likely to require retailers to provide such data once the obligations take effect. Our article on the Digital Product Passport provides a detailed overview of requirements and timeline.
Typical mistakes
- Waiting until the delegated acts are final – in our experience, building clean product data structures takes considerably longer than expected
- Maintaining product data in scattered spreadsheets, emails and isolated tools instead of one leading system
- Not assigning unique product identifiers, so records cannot be reliably matched to individual items
- Ignoring supplier data – many mandatory DPP attributes originate in the upstream supply chain and must be requested early
- Treating the DPP as a pure IT topic, even though purchasing, product management and legal are equally affected
What to look out for
A stocktake is usually a sensible first step: which product data exists where, in what quality and with which gaps? Building on this, the data model, leading system and interfaces can be planned – for example connecting merchandise management and ERP to a PIM. Those who build structured product data early benefit twice: the same data typically also improves product pages, marketplace feeds and search engine visibility. Related EU requirements such as the PPWR packaging regulation draw on similar data foundations – a shared data basis avoids duplicate work.
The specific obligations and deadlines per product group will only be defined in the European Commission's delegated acts. Binding dates should therefore be checked regularly – so far, the battery passport from February 2027 is the main fixed milestone.