Resources.
Plain-language notes on product identity, the EU Digital Product Passport, and the rules behind them. The market's information layer is full of wrong dates; everything here is cited to the regulation and dated when we checked it.
What happens to the battery stock you already have on 18 February 2027
Battery stock already sitting in your warehouse doesn't get a blanket exemption or a blanket duty on 18 February 2027. Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 answers per battery, keyed to when each unit is placed on the market or put into service.
Product authenticity in fashion: what actually stops a fake
Vendor pitches sell tags and apps, and headline statistics sell alarm; neither connects the counterfeit data, resale-authentication failures and the ESPR textile timeline into what a brand's per-item check actually has to do.
The battery passport scope decision tree
Five short definitions, asked in order, tell you whether your battery needs a passport under Article 77(1), and which one applies.
What a fake costs the brand it copies
Counterfeits are 2.3% of world trade, and a third of shoppers who unknowingly buy one say they won't buy from the brand again. The arithmetic of lost trust.
The hologram problem
A security feature only works if someone can actually check it. Research says buyers confirm a hologram exists and stop there. What verifies instead.
Serial numbers done right
Sequential serials leak your production volume and invite enumeration. What eighty years of statistics and modern security say a serial should be.
The resale test
Secondhand is growing two to three times faster than firsthand, and authentication decides what holds value there. Your product's second owner never met you.
Who owns your battery passport?
The obligation lands on whoever places the battery on the EU market. If you import your packs, that is you, not your supplier.
Does the battery passport apply to your e-bike?
LMT batteries are in scope at every size. The 2 kWh threshold people quote belongs to industrial batteries, and getting that wrong is common.
The hard part is not the software
Four independent studies say the same thing: passport projects stall on supplier data, not on tooling. What that means for a six-month runway.
Second life, second passport
Repurpose or remanufacture a battery and it needs a new passport linked to the original, with the obligation transferred to you.
The dates that actually bind you
Four battery deadlines land between 2026 and 2028. Only one requires a passport, one was postponed, and one exempts most SMEs.
The battery passport deadline, explained
What Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 actually requires on 18 February 2027, who is bound, and what each battery needs, cited by article.
What is a Digital Product Passport?
The EU's per-product data record, which product categories are next, and how the ESPR timeline unfolds, without the vendor fog.
Product identity without an app
Serial, QR, and cryptographic NFC: what each carrier proves, and why the consumer path must never require an install.
More notes land as we write them. The readiness checker is the fastest way to see where you stand meanwhile.