Digital Product Passport: Why Robust Product Information Management Is Key.

With regulatory changes accelerating, the EU’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) is becoming a cornerstone of the circular economy, providing a digital record or a product’s materials, components and lifecycle data. Under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation (ESPR), DPPs will become mandatory as early as 2026. Therefore, you should already begin preparations now to ensure compliance and turn regulatory pressure into opportunity.

Quick Access:

• Digital Product Passport Regulations In The EU
• What Is A Digital Product Passport (DPP)?
• When Does The DPP Take Effect?
• Why Should You Prepare Now?
• How To Get Ready For The Digital Product Passport
• Centralize Your Product Data With PIM
• Future-Proof Your Products

Digital Product Passport Regulations In The EU  

The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan is a vital component of the European Green Deal. It aims to reduce waste and extend product lifecycles through better design, reuse and recycling. The Digital Product Passport plays a key role in this, by making detailed product data digitally available across the entire value chain. This transparency supports eco-design, repairability and informed consumer choices.

The EU Digital Single Market is a strategy to create a seamless and unified digital space across EU borders. By promoting common standards and cross-border data access, it lays the groundwork for scalable solutions like the Digital Product Passport. This ensures product data can be shared, understood and verified across the EU.

What Is A Digital Product Passport (DPP)?  

A Digital Product Passport is a digital identity card for a product. It is typically implemented via a scannable tag, like a QR code, on the product. Once scanned, it provides immediate access to detailed product information like material composition, origin of components, manufacturing process, repair history and recommended end-of-life action. This unified data source helps organizations, regulators and consumers to verify a product’s durability, recyclability and regulatory compliance. The DPP becomes a kind of electronic source of truth about the product’s lifecycle.

The DPP is not meant for just one party, it serves multiple stakeholders across the supply chain. Manufacturers are responsible for filling the DPP with accurate, up-to-date information, as they are the primary source of truth. Suppliers may add specific component data, while retailers, repair services and even end-users can access the DPP to read and use this information to ensure compliance, support repairs and make sustainable choices.

At Squadra, we believe that because the DPP is a source of truth, the responsibility for its accuracy must start at the source: the manufacturer. Only by anchoring the data at the origin can you ensure all further users, whether they are in logistics or retail, work with trustworthy, standardized information. This approach not only secures compliance but also strengthens the entire chain’s ability to act sustainably and transparently.

When Does The DPP Take Effect?  

The DPP requirement is rolling out in phases by product category. Under the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation, companies must begin to comply as acts come into force. Batteries will be the first category to require DPPS, from 2026, with textiles and electronics to follow shortly after.

The DPP is not just a regulatory requirement; it signifies a paradigm shift in consumer expectations and industry standards. For businesses, embracing the DPP is not only a legal necessity but a strategic move to align with evolving consumer values centered around transparency and sustainability.

Why Should You Prepare Now?  

Non-compliance will carry consequences. Once in effect, DPPs are a legal requirement under EU law. Companies without these risk fines or market access bans. But beyond penalties, DPPs reflect changing market expectations: consumers and regulators are increasingly demanding transparency about product origins and their environmental impact. There are becoming a signal of trust and accountability in the market, and meeting expectations across the entire value chain, from suppliers to end-users, requires broad stakeholder alignment.

Preparing early is not just about avoiding compliance issues, it is a strategic advantage. Companies that act now gain time to build a complete, accurate and centralized product data foundation. This reduces the risk of costly delays when DPPs become mandatory. More importantly, early preparation enables you to uncover insights hidden in your data, like materials that can be substituted, recycled or reused, which can feed into your eco-design strategies and circular business model.

You will also be better positioned to add value to your business with features like eco-labeling or product-as-a-service offerings. While others will struggle to fix data silos and fill gaps under pressure, you will be ready with your systems already in place, your stakeholders aligned, and trust built across the entire value chain. Early movers will not only comply with the new regulations, they will be leaders.

How To Get Ready For The Digital Product Passport  

• Audit and centralize your product data. Gather all your existing product specifications, composition details and compliance documents into a single system.
• Fill data gaps. Identify missing attributes, like unknown materials and chemical contents, and work with suppliers to collect them.
• Engage your teams. Ensure that R&D, procurement, production and marketing understand the importance of DPPs. It is not just a compliance issue, cross-functional alignment is critical to success, as every team contributes to the accuracy and completeness of product data.
• Plan your DPP roll-out. Decide how you will attach the DPP and establish processes to keep your data updated. Make sure end users can easily scan or access the information.
• Stay informed. The EU will issue detailed specifications and timelines via delegated acts. Monitor these updates to know which products and data will be covered and when.

Centralize Your Product Data With PIM  

A Product Information Management (PIM) system becomes the backbone of DPP compliance and acts as a single source of truth for all product information. It consolidates attributes, images, technical specifications and documents into one hub. This ensures that any change in data automatically flows through all your channels without manual copying.

Companies that already use PIM can more easily generate DPPs from their existing data. Without PIM, they often have to rely on spreadsheets or legacy systems, which is slow and error prone. Even more importantly, a PIM system supports data standardization, ensuring that every product entry follows consistent formats and structures, which is essential for DPP interoperability across EU markets.

A modern PIM system streamlines the process and can automatically populate each product’s DPP with up-to-date information, ensuring high accuracy. Investing in a PIM system now makes meeting DPP requirements much easier in the long run.

Future-Proof Your Products  

The EU’s Digital Product Passport is transforming product transparency and sustainability. It goes even beyond regulation to set a new standard for how products are documented and tracked. With mandatory DPPs coming in from 2026 onward for many products and categories, now is the time to act.

By centralizing your data in a robust PIM system and proactively filling in information gaps, you can turn this regulatory change into a business advantage. Companies that act proactively will not only avoid compliance risks but will also earn customer trust and be well-positioned for the circular economy.

Ready to streamline your product data for DPP compliance?

At Squadra, we specialize in helping organizations centralize and optimize their product information. We help you ensure you are not only compliant with upcoming regulations but also positioned to give the right example in sustainable product transparency.

Contact us today to discover how we can support your journey toward effective DPP implementation.