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.
A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a structured, per-product data record the EU is attaching to physical goods: who made the product, what's in it, how it performs, how to repair and recycle it, all reachable by scanning a code on the product itself.
The framework comes from the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which lets the Commission switch the requirement on category by category through delegated acts.ESPR · REG. (EU) 2024/1781
What a passport actually contains
- A unique identifier for the individual product, behind a printed data carrier, in practice a QR code.
- A category-specific data set: for batteries, the ~90 attributes of Annex XIII.
- Tiered access: some fields are public, some go only to regulators, recyclers, and repairers with a legitimate interest.
- A registry entry: identifiers are filed centrally with the European Commission so authorities can look products up.
The timeline, category by category
- Batteries go first: 18 February 2027. EV, LMT, and industrial batteries above 2 kWh need a passport per battery from that date.REG. (EU) 2023/1542, ART. 77(1)
- Toys: by August 2030. The new Toy Safety Regulation gives every toy on the EU market a digital product passport.REG. (EU) 2025/2509
- Textiles and others: in preparation. Delegated acts are expected category by category. Textiles are widely expected around 2027, but the act is not adopted as we write this; treat any confident textile deadline you read elsewhere with suspicion.
What the rules do not require
The regulation is technology-neutral: it specifies outcomes (data availability, access control, persistence), not a storage technology. No specific database, ledger, or infrastructure is mandated, and nothing in the consumer path may depend on installing an app or creating an account to read what the law makes public.
Why the dates matter more than the acronym
Most of what's written about DPPs is undated or wrong about deadlines. We've read vendor explainers that miss the battery date entirely. The only defense is primary sources: every date above carries its regulation number, and we note when we last checked EUR-Lex.
Making batteries? The battery passport deadline, explained covers your category in detail, and the free readiness checker shows where you stand.
General information, not legal advice. Verify obligations against the cited regulations on EUR-Lex, or with counsel. Citations checked July 30, 2026.