What are the Digital Product Passport requirements ?

Digital product passports, complete digital records of your product and its supply chain, are soon to be implemented across Europe and beyond… And you might be worrying about staying on top of the requirements.

It can be challenging to understand exactly what processes you need to follow. But don’t worry — in this article, we’ll explore the entire process of documenting and sharing data in detail. We’ll also highlight a tool that makes staying compliant and pleasing your consumers easy.

Where will digital product passports be required?

The European Commission outlined in the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) that digital product passports will soon be rolled out across Europe. This applies to every country in the continent, but it also applies to any country that manufactures for Europe from outside the region. 

Other countries across the world are also introducing similar legislation; you can read our full guide to where digital product passports are required here.

Digital product passports can be grouped by item, batch or product model. The ESPR also has legislation (delegated acts) which outlines which products will be covered by which groups or even covered at all. To save time, you can also read our guide to which products require DPPs.

What is included in the digital product passport requirements?

The key things that you need to include in a DPP, as listed by the ESPR, are:

• A unique product identifier (UID).
• TARIC code and other relevant commodity codes.  
• Global trade identification number.
• Documentation related to substances of concern.
• Compliance documentation (declaration of conformity, technical documentation or conformity certificates).
• User manuals, instructions, warnings or safety information.
• Information about the manufacturer, operators, importer, and unique facility identifiers.
• Information about installation, use, maintenance and repair of the product.
• Disposal information.
• Other information that impacts the way the product is handled.

Technical documentation requirements

It’s important to remember that the ESPR states that people throughout the entire value chain should be able to access the data in your DPP.

This means that as well as including the information outlined above, you need to record technical details in a way that meets data interoperability standards. These are guidelines that ensure a seamless exchange of data between different systems.

So, no matter what type of product you are creating a passport for, you’ll have to:

• Make sure your data is structured and readable through QR codes, Near Field Communication (NFC), and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).
• Specify the tests, measurements or calculations that you have used to establish or verify compliance.
• Store and process data in the same secure file formats.  
• Ensure that your data can be read by a standardised data carrier such as a watermark or QR code.

Data sharing for the digital product passport requirements.

The final part of meeting the digital product passport requirements is ensuring that your consumers can review the details of your product passport before signing a sales contract.

They should be able to head into a store and scan a QR code, RFID chip or NFC chip to receive information straight to their smartphone.

At the same time, users throughout the supply chain need to be able to access the information it presents.

To boost transparency and trust with all parties, you can include all certifications in a single, intuitive app (Authentify). This automatically structures key information, ensures security, and enables your data to be read by all standardised data carriers and by people whenever they need it.  

In short, you’ll meet digital product passport requirements with ease!

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