What is a Digital Product Passport?

Published October 2025 © DATA4CIRC

If you look around you, you’ll realise quickly that you are surround by products about which you know very little. The phone, tablet, or laptop on which you are reading this blog, for instance. Even if you’re an expert, the chances are you know about the performance spec and the software, but not much about the physical device itself: origin of the materials used in the device, the extent to which those materials can be extracted and reused at the end of the device’s lifespan, and how this can be done safely. It’s ok not to know these things as a consumer (though knowing might help you make more informed ethical choices about products you buy), but for businesses, especially those involved in manufacturing, recycling, repair, and waste disposal, it is increasingly necessary to have (and to provide) that information.

A little bit of background

In 2020, the European Union set targets in its Circular Economy Action Plan to make sustainable products the norm in Europe. This has been backed up by the establishment of a framework of different policies, including the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), Directive empowering consumers for the green transition, and the Directive on repair of goods, which laid out the so-called “right to repair”. Other pieces of legislation, such as the 2012 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive have been reevaluated and will be updated.

Nevertheless, the European Union also identifies the lack of information, or lack of access to the information, about the products themselves as a significant barrier to achieving this goal. This is where Digital Product Passports come in.

So what exactly is a Digital Product Passport?

DATA4CIRC’s Expert Michael Winter from the Chair of Information and Automation Systems for Process and Material Technology (IAT) at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany gives a brief explanation of Digital Product Passports (DPPs): they are digital descriptions of a product’s key features, such as origin, environmental impact, and instructions for recycling – they allow the collection and sharing of product data throughout the entire value chain (production, use, potential aftermarket/reuse etc.). The goal is to increase transparency. Whilst data attributes for some items, such as batteries, have already been laid out by the EU, the precise specifications of what information must be included are, for many products, still in the process of development and will likely vary depending on the product category. However, to ensure consistency and interoperability, DPPs must be developed in a standard and regulation-compliant way. To ensure consistency and interoperability, the DATA4CIRC DPP solution is based on the DIN EN IEC 61406-1 and IEC 63278-1 standards.

Some categories, such as batteries, textiles, and construction materials have been identified by the European Commission as early targets for the implementation of DPPs. Manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers of products in these categories are already required to make their DPPs accessible and from 2026 all electric vehicle batteries will need to include a DPP.

In a practical sense, DPPs will take the form of a bar code, QR code, electronic (RFID) tag or other physical identifier that will accompany or be affixed to the product. Some of the information it leads to will be publicly accessible, other parts of the information contained in DPPs will be private or only accessible to selected groups. A key hurdle will be designing a system of infrastructure that will allow the data to be securely stored, structured, and searched.

Final thoughts

Whilst fears over prohibitive administrative burdens are not unfounded – DPPs must be designed in such a way that it ensures they are user-friendly and economically viable – DPPs also offer massive opportunities, for example, allowing consumers to verify that any claims a company makes about its products, such as their eco credentials, can in fact be relied upon. That, in turn, represents an opportunity for businesses: trust exerts a strong influence on purchase decisions and, in an environment in which claims of Greenwashing might be rife, a product that is demonstrably compliant can differentiate itself from competition.

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