# The EU Digital Product Passport and QR codes

> The EU Digital Product Passport, created by the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, attaches a structured data record to individual products via a data carrier on the item, in practice usually a QR code. Batteries go first, with passports required from 2027 under the Battery Regulation; other priority categories follow via delegated acts.

Source: https://useqr.app/docs/ecommerce/eu-digital-product-passport · Last reviewed 2026-08-21 · UseQR is free forever, no signup.

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## What the DPP is

The Digital Product Passport is the EU's mechanism for attaching structured, accessible
data to physical products. The framework comes from the **Ecodesign for Sustainable
Products Regulation (ESPR)**, in force since 2024; the product-by-product detail arrives
through **delegated acts** that specify, per category, what data the passport must hold
(durability, repairability, recycled content, substances of concern, disassembly and
recycling information), and who may access which parts of it.

The passport itself is a data record, not a label. What connects the physical item to the
record is a **data carrier on the product**: a machine-readable symbol that resolves to
the passport. The regulation is carrier-neutral, but in current EU planning and in every
serious industry pilot the carrier is a **QR code**, because it is printable at label
scale, readable by any phone, and, via
[GS1 Digital Link](/docs/spec/gs1-digital-link-in-qr), able to carry structured
identifiers inside an ordinary URL.

## Timeline, framed carefully

Dates beyond the battery case are still being set, so treat this as the current EU
planning position rather than a settled schedule:

| Milestone | Status |
|---|---|
| ESPR in force | Done, July 2024 |
| Battery passports required (Battery Regulation) | **From February 2027**, for EV, LMT and industrial batteries above 2 kWh |
| First ESPR delegated acts (priority categories: textiles, iron and steel, furniture among those signalled) | In preparation, dates come with each act |
| General DPP infrastructure (registry, resolvers) | Under construction by the Commission |

The battery passport is the template: per-unit identity, carbon footprint, material
provenance and state-of-health data, reached through a code on the battery. Other
categories will rhyme with it.

## What the carrier requirements imply

For the code on the product, the practical implications are already visible:

- **Unit-level or batch-level identity.** A passport for *this* battery means
  [serialised codes](/docs/ecommerce/qr-code-for-serialized-products), not one code per
  SKU, per-unit generation at production scale (the
  [batch API](/docs/developers/free-qr-code-api-no-key) pattern, or MES-integrated).
- **Durability.** The carrier must survive the product's life, for industrial goods that
  points at engraved or laminated codes rather than paper labels.
- **Resolvable identifiers.** A GS1 Digital Link URL carrying GTIN plus serial is the
  likely lingua franca, because it serves the
  [retail scanning migration](/docs/ecommerce/gs1-digital-link-for-retail) with the same
  symbol.

## What to do now

Nobody should print "DPP-compliant" codes today, the delegated acts that define
compliance mostly do not exist yet. What is worth doing now is removing the future
retrofit:

1. **Get serialisation working.** Per-unit identity is the hard operational change;
   start before it is mandatory.
2. **Adopt Digital Link-shaped URLs** on new artwork (`example.com/01/{gtin}/21/{serial}`),
   so today's marketing code becomes tomorrow's passport carrier without new artwork.
3. **Structure the data** you already publish:
   [materials and recycling](/docs/ecommerce/qr-code-for-sustainability-and-recycling-info),
   repair, provenance, so populating a passport schema later is an export, not a project.
4. **Keep resolvers on a domain you control** with the
   [permanence discipline](/docs/ecommerce/qr-codes-on-product-packaging) packaging
   already demands.

## FAQ

### What is the EU Digital Product Passport?
A structured data record attached to individual products under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, covering durability, repair, materials and recycling data. It is reached via a data carrier on the product, which in practice will usually be a QR code.

### When does the DPP become mandatory?
Batteries first: the Battery Regulation requires passports for EV, LMT and industrial batteries above 2 kWh from February 2027. Other categories follow through ESPR delegated acts, each setting its own dates: textiles and steel are among the signalled priorities.

### Will the DPP require a QR code specifically?
The regulation is carrier-neutral, but current EU planning and industry pilots centre on QR codes, typically carrying GS1 Digital Link identifiers, because any phone can read them and the same symbol can serve retail scanning.

### What should manufacturers do before the rules land?
Build unit-level serialisation, move new artwork to Digital Link-shaped URLs on a domain you control, and structure existing material and repair data so it can populate a passport schema later without redesigning packaging.

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