Overview#
A Digital Product Passport is a digital record that travels with a product and holds its key data in a structured, accessible form. The EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation introduces it as a tool for a more circular economy.
The passport gathers information that today is scattered or hard to reach: what a product is made of, which substances of concern it contains, how to repair it, and how to recycle it. For some product groups it can also carry a carbon footprint figure.
How it arrives#
The DPP does not switch on for everything at once. It is phased in product group by product group, with the detailed requirements set per group over time.
Relation to existing data#
Much of what a DPP would carry already exists in other systems. The substances-of-concern angle overlaps with the SCIP database, so the passport builds on data many companies already collect rather than starting from nothing.
Carrier and exchange channel#
A DPP needs a technical carrier and an exchange channel. The Asset Administration Shell is a leading candidate to carry passport data, which is expected to move through data spaces such as Catena-X, with the EU Data Act likely to provide the access rights.