Digital Product Passport (DPP)

What is a Digital Product Passport?

The ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, defines the digital product passport as a set of data specific to a product that includes the information required by the applicable delegated act. The passport itself is not a document printed on the box. It is data held online and reached by scanning or tapping a data carrier on the product, its packaging or the accompanying documentation.

Who reads it depends on the product: consumers who want to know what a jacket is made of, repairers looking for spare parts, recyclers who need material information, customs and market surveillance authorities checking compliance. The aim is to make products easier to repair, reuse and recycle, and to make sustainability claims checkable.

What does the EU require, and when does the DPP apply?

The ESPR entered into force on 18 July 2024. It is a framework: it sets out how a passport must work, but the concrete obligations for each product group follow in separate delegated acts, each with its own scope and application date. A product only needs a passport once the delegated act for its group says so.

The Commission’s first ESPR working plan, adopted on 16 April 2025, lists the priority product groups for 2025 to 2030: textiles (with a focus on apparel), furniture, tyres, mattresses, iron and steel, and aluminium, plus horizontal measures on repairability and recyclability for electrical and electronic equipment. Under Article 13 of the ESPR, the Commission has to set up a central DPP registry by 19 July 2026, which stores at least the unique identifiers.

The first passport that is legally binding comes from a separate law. Under the EU Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, every LMT battery (for e-bikes and scooters), every industrial battery above 2 kWh and every electric vehicle battery placed on the market from 18 February 2027 needs a battery passport, accessible through a QR code on the battery.

• 18 July 2024: ESPR enters into force.
• 16 April 2025: first ESPR working plan (2025 to 2030) adopted.
• 19 July 2026: deadline for the Commission’s DPP registry (Article 13 ESPR).
• 18 February 2027: battery passport mandatory under the Batteries Regulation.
• Later: product groups such as textiles or steel, each on the date set by its delegated act.

Which data carrier does a Digital Product Passport need?

The ESPR is technology-neutral. It defines a data carrier as a linear bar code symbol, a two-dimensional symbol or other automatic identification data capture medium that can be read by a device. Article 10 requires that the passport is linked through the data carrier to a persistent unique product identifier and that the carrier is physically present on the product, its packaging or accompanying documentation. Which carrier is used for a given product group is set in the delegated acts and the related standards, not by a general preference for one technology.

In practice, three carriers are discussed. A printed QR code is the cheapest and can be read by any smartphone camera, which is why the battery passport uses it. NFC chips can be read by a tap, can sit invisibly inside the product or label, and secure versions can prove that the item is genuine, a topic covered under NFC authentication. UHF RFID is read by dedicated readers at a distance and suits logistics and recycling sorting rather than consumers. Many brands are looking at combinations, for example a printed QR code for universal access and an embedded NFC chip for authentication and a richer customer experience. A common way to encode the identifier is GS1 Digital Link, which turns a product number such as a GTIN, optionally with a serial number, into a web address.

What can marketing do with a Digital Product Passport?

A DPP is first a compliance requirement, but it also puts a scannable or tappable entry point on every regulated product. The same link that leads to material and recycling data can lead to care instructions, registration, warranty, accessories or a repair service. This is the idea behind connected packaging, now with a legal reason to exist on the product.

The honest limits: the content and access rights of the passport are defined by regulation, so the marketing layer has to sit next to the required data, not replace it. Item-level identification adds cost and process work in production. And for low-value, high-volume goods, a printed code will often be the only carrier that makes economic sense.

How do you measure a Digital Product Passport?

Because every scan or tap requests a web address, the platform behind the passport can count how often products are accessed, at which stage of their life, on which device and in which country. With item-level identifiers, access can be broken down by batch or even by individual product. This shows whether customers actually use the information, which content they open after purchase, and where products turn up. Privacy rules still apply to anything that identifies a person.

How does Interactive Paper relate to the Digital Product Passport?

Interactive Paper works on the physical and experience side of the passport: embedding NFC chips in paper, board and labels, giving each piece its own identifier, and opening a tracked browser experience without an app. The passport data model, hosting obligations and registry connection usually sit with a dedicated DPP platform, to which the carrier links.

The technology is the same as in Tap and Tap Premium: a chip embedded between layers, a link that can be changed on the server, and a dashboard that records every interaction. For packaging and product labels, Interactive Paper runs its NFC label brand NFC XR. A comparison of the two main carriers is in QR code vs. NFC.

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