Digital Product Passport (DPP): EU requirements, timeline, and how to prepare

Last updated: September 2026

THE LATEST

The EU Digital Product Passport Registry is now operational, six harmonized technical standards have been published, and Digital Product Passports become mandatory for certain batteries on February 18, 2027.

The European Union’s Digital Product Passport is changing how regulated product information is created, maintained, and shared. Instead of relying only on labels, documents, and disconnected databases, a DPP connects a physical product, component, or material to structured digital information that can be accessed by the people and organizations entitled to use it.

The legal foundation is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which entered into force in July 2024. But the DPP is no longer only a regulatory framework on paper. The EU Registry became operational in July 2026, technical standards are being published, and the first binding product deadline is approaching.

That does not mean every product sold in Europe needs a passport today. Requirements are being introduced progressively by product group through ESPR delegated acts and through separate EU legislation. The practical priority for most companies is therefore not to guess every future field. It is to create an adaptable, governed product-data foundation that can support the requirements as they become final.

Not sure where to begin? Use the Inriver DPP guide to assess your product data, systems, suppliers, and readiness plan. Get the guide

Is a Digital Product Passport mandatory for every product?

No. The ESPR creates a framework capable of covering a broad range of physical goods, but it does not impose one universal DPP requirement on every product. A passport becomes mandatory when a product-specific ESPR delegated act or separate EU law requires one.

Inclusion in the ESPR Working Plan is an important signal, but it is not itself a compliance deadline. The rulemaking process determines:

• Which products and subcategories are covered
• Whether a DPP is required for that product group
• Which information must be included
• Whether the passport applies at model, batch, or individual-item level
• Who can view, create, or update each data point
• Where the data carrier must appear
• How long the passport must remain available
• When the requirements become legally applicable

The ESPR framework excludes categories including food and feed, medicinal products for human or veterinary use, living plants and animals, microorganisms, and products of human origin. Some products may also be covered by their own sector-specific digital information rules rather than an ESPR delegated act.

What are the latest DPP developments?

The EU DPP Registry is operational

The EU Digital Product Passport Registry became operational on July 20, 2026. Economic operators can enroll their organizations, review implementation guidance, and use a testing environment to explore registration workflows.

The Registry acts as a central EU index. It stores unique identifiers, required registration data, and high-level metadata. It does not normally store the complete detailed passport. That information remains decentralized under the responsibility of the relevant economic operator and may be hosted by the operator or by a DPP service provider.

Businesses can review the live service, testing environment, and user guidance on the European Commission’s DPP Registry page.

Technical standards are becoming concrete

In July 2026, the Commission referenced six harmonized European standards supporting the DPP system. These address areas including unique identifiers, data carriers, interoperability, application programming interfaces, data exchange, and data storage. The Commission’s current roadmap indicates that decisions on two remaining standards are expected in September 2026.

The standards are listed in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736.

Battery guidance provides the first detailed operating model

The Commission’s August 2026 guidance organizes 71 battery-passport data points by category and identifies whether each is mandatory, optional, conditional, or not yet required as of February 2027. It demonstrates why businesses need a flexible data model: even within one regulated sector, requirements can differ by battery type and application date.

From February 18, 2027, every electric-vehicle battery, light-means-of-transport battery, and industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kWh placed on the EU market or put into service must have a battery passport. Read the European Commission’s battery-passport guidance.

Which products are affected, and when?

The following timeline separates operational milestones, binding requirements, and indicative rulemaking targets. Product scope and final compliance dates should always be confirmed against the applicable legislation.

Source: European Commission DPP timeline and ESPR Working Plan 2025-2030. Indicative milestones are subject to the final published legal acts.

What about footwear, cosmetics, and other categories?

Footwear is not included as a final product priority in the first ESPR Working Plan. The Commission plans a study, expected to be completed by the end of 2027, to assess possible future ecodesign requirements. Cosmetics are not named as a priority product group in the current 2025-2030 Working Plan.

Energy-related products are being addressed product by product between 2026 and 2029. Some may continue to use the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling, or EPREL, as an equivalent digital information system instead of requiring a separate DPP.

The DPP architecture is also being incorporated into legislation beyond ESPR. The Commission identifies batteries, construction products, toys, detergents and surfactants, packaging, and critical raw materials among the areas governed through separate EU laws or regulatory workstreams. This is why DPP readiness should be treated as a reusable product-compliance capability rather than a one-time project for a single regulation.

What information could a DPP include?

There is no single universal DPP dataset. The required information will vary by product category, regulation, passport granularity, and stakeholder access rights. Depending on the applicable rules, a passport may include:

• Product identity: product name, model, batch or serial information, unique identifiers, manufacturer, and responsible economic operator.
• Materials and components: composition, critical raw materials, recycled content, substances of concern, and component relationships.
• Sustainability information: carbon or environmental footprint data, energy performance, resource efficiency, and other category-specific measures.
• Durability and performance: expected lifetime, performance characteristics, warranties, and testing information where required.
• Repair and circularity: repair instructions, compatible spare parts, disassembly information, reuse, remanufacturing, and recyclability guidance.
• Compliance documentation: declarations of conformity, certificates, safety information, technical documentation, and regulatory markings.
• Supply-chain information: facility, sourcing, due-diligence, custody, or provenance information where the product rules require it.
• End-of-life guidance: safe handling, collection, disposal, material recovery, and recycling instructions.

The applicable rules also determine which information is public, which is restricted, who can change it, and how long it must remain available. Personal customer data is not included by default and cannot be stored without an appropriate legal basis and explicit consent where required.

How does the Digital Product Passport work?

1. Gather the required information. The responsible economic operator collects the product data required under the applicable EU legislation from internal systems, suppliers, testing bodies, and other value-chain participants.
2. Structure and govern the data. Information is mapped to the required data model, validated, approved, and associated with the correct product, model, batch, or individual item.
3. Create and host the passport. The detailed DPP is stored by the responsible economic operator or a DPP service provider. A backup copy may also be required through an eligible service provider.
4. Register the passport. The required unique identifiers and registration metadata are submitted to the EU DPP Registry before the covered product is placed on the market or put into service.
5. Connect the physical and digital product. A data carrier, such as a QR code or another permitted technology, links the product, packaging, or accompanying documentation to the passport.
6. Provide role-based access. Consumers, supply-chain partners, repairers, recyclers, customs, and market-surveillance authorities access the information appropriate to their roles.
7. Maintain the record. The responsible actors keep required data accurate, complete, current, secure, and available for the period defined in the applicable product rules.

Why DPP is more than a compliance requirement

The immediate driver is market access: once a DPP requirement applies, covered products that do not meet the relevant ecodesign and information requirements may not be placed on the EU market or put into service. But the same infrastructure can create broader business value.

• More trusted product information. Structured, traceable information can help customers and business partners understand product performance, origin, materials, and sustainability characteristics.
• Faster compliance operations. Reusable product data and documentation can reduce repeated manual work across regulations, markets, and reporting processes.
• Better supplier collaboration. Clear data requirements expose missing information earlier and create a more consistent method for collecting and validating supplier inputs.
• Stronger repair and service experiences. Accurate product, component, compatibility, and documentation data can improve maintenance, replacement-parts selection, and product support.
• New circular business models. Better information can support repair, reuse, refurbishment, resale, remanufacturing, and higher-quality recycling.
• More consistent commercial content. The same governed product foundation can support distributor submissions, ecommerce, marketplaces, digital product experiences, and AI-assisted product discovery.

How should companies prepare for DPP requirements?

1. Determine which rules apply. Map your product portfolio to ESPR priority groups and to separate sector-specific legislation. Distinguish confirmed requirements from indicative rulemaking dates.
2. Build a product-data ownership model. Identify which systems and teams own product identity, materials, components, sustainability metrics, certificates, facilities, repair information, and end-of-life instructions.
3. Audit data availability and quality. Assess completeness, accuracy, granularity, lineage, update frequency, and supporting evidence. Pay particular attention to information held only by suppliers or in unstructured documents.
4. Engage suppliers early. Set expectations for the information, formats, evidence, and change notifications suppliers will need to provide.
5. Design for changing requirements. Use a configurable product model and validation approach that can accommodate different categories, countries, access rights, and model-, batch-, or item-level passports.
6. Plan the complete architecture. Connect source systems, governance workflows, DPP hosting, identifiers, data carriers, the EU Registry, security, access controls, and backup requirements.
7. Pilot a defined product line. Choose a category with meaningful complexity and test the process from data collection through passport publication and physical scanning.
8. Test against the EU environment. Where relevant, use the Registry testing environment and current technical guidance to validate identifiers, metadata, roles, and registration workflows.
9. Establish ongoing regulatory ownership. Monitor delegated acts, implementing acts, standards, technical guidance, and category-specific legislation. DPP readiness is an operating capability, not a one-time launch.

What systems support DPP readiness?

Inriver’s role in Digital Product Passport readiness

Inriver provides the governed product-data foundation that connects source information to DPP services and other commercial channels. Rather than replacing ERP, PLM, sustainability, traceability, or regulatory systems, Inriver helps make their product information usable, consistent, and scalable.

With Inriver, organizations can:

• Onboard product and supplier information from multiple systems and formats
• Model complex products, components, variants, materials, accessories, and relationships
• Define category-specific attributes and validation rules as requirements evolve
• Identify missing or inconsistent information before publication
• Coordinate enrichment, review, approval, translation, and regulatory workflows
• Maintain governed product records and supporting assets
• Prepare structured information for DPP platforms, commerce, distributors, marketplaces, print, and AI-enabled experiences

From governed product data to operational Digital Product Passports

Preparing the data is only one part of implementing a Digital Product Passport. Organizations may also need technology for passport creation and hosting, unique product identities, QR codes or other data carriers, role-based access, authentication, traceability, backup, and customer-facing experiences.

Inriver customers can work with specialized DPP technology partners to extend governed product information into operational passports. Each partner provides a different combination of capabilities and deployment options.

Rexidy

Rexidy’s Blippa platform connects natively with Inriver to create multilingual Digital Product Passports at product, batch, or serial-number level. It supports QR codes, NFC, GS1 Digital Link, role-based experiences, AI-powered product support, and hosted or self-managed deployment options.

Qliktag

Qliktag connects Inriver with its Connected Products Platform to synchronize governed product data and create passports at product, batch, or individual-item level. Its capabilities include GS1 Digital Link, dynamic QR codes, RFID, secure NFC tags, product authentication, and connected customer experiences.

OrigoVero

OrigoVero extends the governed product record in Inriver into a verifiable passport for each physical unit. Its platform combines QR and NFC verification with unit-level identity, product authenticity, and a signed chain of custody across the product journey.

Together, Inriver and its partner ecosystem give organizations flexible options to move from product-data readiness to DPP deployment as EU technical and product-specific requirements continue to evolve.

Important: Specific capabilities and compliance requirements depend on the selected partner, solution configuration, product category, and applicable EU legislation.