ESPR
Digital Product Passport under ESPR: which products are next after batteries
Updated 2026-09-09 · All guides
One mechanism, many product groups
The battery passport is the first live implementation of a much broader idea. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) makes the Digital Product Passport the default vehicle for product information across the single market, activated group by group through delegated acts.
Priority groups named in the first working plan include textiles and apparel, consumer electronics and ICT, iron and steel, aluminium, furniture, tyres, and chemicals such as detergents and paints.
What stays the same across product groups
The horizontal EN 18216-series standards define how a passport works, not what any given product must declare: a unique product identifier, a data carrier (in practice a QR code), a decentralised architecture where identifiers sit in an EU registry while the data stays with the operator or a service provider, and tiered access for different audiences.
The practical consequence for anyone choosing a system: the plumbing is shared. What changes per product group is the attribute list. A platform organised around swappable field catalogues per product type will absorb textiles or electronics without a rebuild; one hard-coded for batteries will not.
What differs per group
- Textiles — fibre composition, country of manufacture, recycled content, microplastic release, substances of concern, care and repair, recyclability.
- Electronics — energy efficiency class, repairability score, spare-parts availability, RoHS substances, recycled content, firmware support period.
- Steel and aluminium — embodied carbon, alloy composition, scrap share, provenance.
How to prepare without over-investing
Two moves are safe today even before your product group's delegated act lands. First, get your product data into a structured system rather than spreadsheets and PDFs — the collection work dominates every DPP project and is independent of the final field list. Second, choose infrastructure that treats field catalogues as configuration, so a new attribute list is a change of settings rather than a migration.
What not to do yet: print permanent QR labels for product groups whose identifier rules are not final.
Frequently asked
What is a Digital Product Passport (DPP)?
A Digital Product Passport is a structured, machine-readable record of a product's identity, materials, environmental footprint and circularity information, accessible through a data carrier such as a QR code on the product. It is introduced for batteries by Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and extended to other product groups by the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).
Which products will need a Digital Product Passport?
Batteries first, from 18 February 2027. Under ESPR, priority groups include textiles and apparel, consumer electronics and ICT, iron and steel, aluminium, furniture, tyres, detergents, paints and chemicals — each activated by its own delegated act with its own timeline.