On 20 July, the European Commission launched the Digital Product Passport Registry together with a testing environment, marking an important milestone in making the Digital Product Passport (DPP) a practical reality for businesses placing products on the EU market.
Established under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, the Digital Product Passport is a digital container of product information designed to strengthen supply chain transparency, support more informed consumer choices and facilitate compliance across the Single Market. While product data is stored in a decentralised manner, economic operators must register each Digital Product Passport in the Registry, which provides the secure infrastructure needed to register unique product identifiers and associated metadata.
This milestone follows the adoption of the Implementing Regulation establishing the practical arrangements for the Registry, bringing an essential component of the Digital Product Passport system into operation.
The Registry will support products covered by the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, including textiles, steel and aluminium, tyres, furniture, ICT products and energy-related products. It will also support product groups covered by other Union legislation requiring Digital Product Passport registration, including certain large batteries, construction products, toys, detergents, and end-user surfactants.
Clear rules for implementation
The Implementing Regulation establishes
- clear rules for access management and user verification;
- requirements for the registration and storage of the necessary data;
- the technical architecture of the Registry.
Registration is available through either a secure user interface or an application programming interface (API), enabling economic operators to integrate registration into their existing digital systems where appropriate.
Economic operators can also request proof of registration in the form of a secure electronic document. This can be used to demonstrate compliance with third parties, particularly in business-to-business (B2B) transactions.
The Implementing Regulation also clarifies the respective responsibilities of the European Commission and EU countries, helping to ensure legal certainty, predictability and trust.
Designed for usability, interoperability and trust
Responding to feedback from EU countries and stakeholders, the Registry has been designed with a strong focus on usability, interoperability, and trust. Businesses will have access to a free semantic repository providing machine-readable data models, definitions and vocabulary across product groups through documented APIs. This will support interoperability, facilitate data management, and help reduce administrative burden as the Digital Product Passport is rolled out across different sectors. The Registry also includes a verification framework and logging system that strengthens security, accountability and reliable access management.
The Digital Product Passport is a key enabler of the circular economy, a more transparent Single Market and more informed consumer choices. By putting the operational foundations of the Registry in place, the Commission is making it easier for economic operators to register product information, demonstrate compliance, and exchange reliable, interoperable data across the Single Market.
Publication of the six DPP standards
In parallel, and to facilitate the creation of Digital Product Passports and complement the Registry, eight harmonised standards underpinning the interoperability of the DPP system have been developed in close cooperation with the CEN-CENELEC. Six of these standards, covering unique identifiers, interoperability, data carriers, APIs, data exchange protocols and data storage, are already available and published by the national standardisation organisations. References to the harmonized parts of these standards are already published by the European Commission.
Resources now available to support implementation
The Commission will continue to support implementation and ensure that the Registry is accessible, secure and effective for all users. The current testing phase will help ensure a smooth rollout ahead of the first implementation deadline on 18 February 2027 for certain types of large batteries.
Economic operators can now access the testing environment, technical documentation, implementation guidelines, webinars, and the latest information through the new DPP website. A dedicated helpdesk is also available to support businesses throughout the registration process.
Learn more: The DPP Registry
