No Digital Product Passport, No Sales!!
The new requirements, decided by EU Commission, have a global impact because they demand that all businesses make their product data visible and accessible throughout the entire supply chain. Transparency is necessary to achieve a sustainable, accountable, and fair industry. The Digital Product Passport shall reassure the consumers of the product’s origin, confirm its sustainable credentials and inform manufacturers how to produce greener, more efficient, and more long-lasting units. It is also to ensure that the items can easily be traced, returned or where possible recycled.
The DPP initiative is part of the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and one of the key actions under the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). It is not only a data sharing requirement, but a segment of traceability, and a chain of business activities, is also present within other regulations. These form part of the European Union’s Digital Transition and Data Spaces plan designed to bring in line with access to data.
The Digital Product Passport must be developed with an interoperable format and with the possibility to be structured, searchable, and machine-readable. Every traceable process needs to be shared in order to understand, improve, and provide greater insight into the materials and products we use as a society and their embodied ecological damage. The overall aim of this law is to reduce the product life cycle environmental impacts through efficient digital solutions. An interoperability that contains information about the origins, production, delivery, use, end, and recycling of that product, all extended by traceable and verifiable data.
The regulation is meant for (re-)manufacturers, repairers, recyclers, importers and distributors, dealers, maintenance, professionals individuals, user, end user, national authorities, public interest organizations, the EU commission, or any company acting on their behalf. Every electric vehicle and industrial battery must come with a digital (battery) passport from 2026, however, it is determined that the EU Commission will be incorporating more industries. Introducing 18 new delegate legislation between 2024–2027 and new authorized acts, between 2028–2030, to legalize the potential of the product passport.
When DPP becomes a standard for all industries in the near future, it will generate new value and gain significant economics for companies.
