What Is the Digital Product Passport?

Every product has an origin story. Before it lands on store shelves or a consumer’s doorstep, it traverses various touch points across an increasingly complex supply chain.

However, as supply chains have become more global and interconnected, they have become less transparent. However, new regulations are emerging to address this issue.

The European Union (E.U.) has passed legislation to create the Digital Product Passport (DPP) for nearly all products sold in the region. Explore what brand manufacturers need to know about the new requirement.

What Is the Digital Product Passport?

The European Commission Digital Product Passport is part of a larger regulatory effort in the E.U., the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, to advance sustainable product development and improve transparency across the product life cycle.

The Digital Product Passport also intends to standardize product data and make it more accessible to a wide range of stakeholders, including consumers, regulators, and waste managers, to drive greater accountability across product value chains.

Imagine you sell high-end sweaters. Each sweater would have a Digital Product Passport — such as a scannable QR code on the tag — detailing important information like the sweater’s materials and where they were sourced; where it was manufactured; its carbon footprint; and disposal or recycling instructions.

By providing this level of transparency, not only are you complying with E.U. regulations, but you’re also reinforcing your commitment to sustainability and allowing consumers to make informed purchase decisions.

What Information Will Brands Need To Include in a Digital Product Passport?

The Digital Product Passport will include crucial data about:

• A product’s origin
• Materials used to develop it
• Environmental impact
• Disposal recommendations

Why Is the EU Implementing This Legislation?

For years, the E.U. has been at the forefront of sustainability regulation. Passed in 2024, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation is the E.U.'s latest law to promote a circular economy by making products more durable, reusable, and recyclable.

The E.U. has a Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) that is part of the European Green New Deal, a set of wide-ranging climate policy initiatives. The Digital Product Passport, one of the cornerstones of CEAP, aims to reduce the environmental impact of sectors that generate high emissions and waste, such as the electronics, textiles, and plastics industries. Because of their significant environmental impact, these sectors also have the greatest potential to help create a more sustainable economy.

With the Digital Product Passport, the E.U. is combating greenwashing by requiring companies to accurately report their environmental data, giving these industries a powerful nudge in the right direction.

When Will It Go Into Effect, and Who Will Be Affected?

The Digital Product Passport will go into effect in 2026. Companies have until 2030 to fully implement it.

The regulation applies to all brands that sell in the E.U. However, companies in the apparel, footwear, electronics, batteries, construction materials, furniture, and chemicals industries, among others, will be most affected.

The Digital Product Passport also has larger implications for most businesses because of today's supply chains' global, interconnected nature. Even if a company is headquartered outside the E.U., it'll likely need to comply with the law if it does business or works with suppliers in the region. 

The Potential Benefits of the Digital Product Passport for Brands

The Digital Product Passport will allow your company to boost consumer trust and differentiate itself in the sustainability space. These efforts could increase brand equity and give you a competitive edge in the E.U. and other sustainability-minded markets.

There’s also the potential to streamline product content management and incorporate product environmental data into the product details page (PDP) to give consumers relevant details to inform their buying decisions. 

Preparing for DPP? Practice Eco-Consciousness

As the E.U. and other jurisdictions push for sustainable product development, your brand must implement tools to accurately track every product’s environmental impact across its life cycle.

You then can integrate these solutions with other technologies within your stack, such as a product experience management (PXM) platform, to increase transparency and accountability across your value chain and powerfully demonstrate your brand’s commitment to sustainability.