EU Digital Product Passport 2026: Why the Product Link Matters
The Digital Product Passport is often described as a data challenge. For manufacturers, it is also a product identity decision.
A passport only creates value when the right person can access the right information for the exact product in front of them. That means something has to live on the product, the packaging, the label, or the component itself. It may look like a QR code, barcode, Data Matrix code, or another scannable carrier. But the strategic question is bigger than the format:
This is where many Digital Product Passport programs split into two very different paths. One path treats the passport as a compliance project. The other uses the same rollout to create a secure product identity that supports compliance, anti-counterfeiting, and direct customer engagement at once.
For companies preparing for the European Union’s Digital Product Passport requirements, the second path can create a much stronger business case.
Key takeaways
What is a Digital Product Passport?
A Digital Product Passport is a digital record connected to a physical product, component, or material. It is designed to make relevant product information easier to access throughout the product lifecycle.
Depending on the product category and future delegated acts, a passport may include information such as:
- Product identification data
- Manufacturer and origin information
- Material composition
- Sustainability and environmental data
- Compliance and certification records
- Repair and maintenance instructions
- User manuals and safety information
- Recycling, disposal, and end-of-life guidance
- Supply chain or traceability information
Today, this information is often fragmented across ERP and PLM systems, supplier declarations, compliance databases, packaging files, manuals, service portals, and generic websites. The Digital Product Passport creates a framework for bringing that information closer to the individual product and making it accessible to the right stakeholders, including customers, distributors, repair centers, recyclers, customs authorities, and regulators.
Where the EU stands in 2026
The legal foundation is already in place. The EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, known as ESPR, entered into force on 18 July 2024. It extends the previous ecodesign framework from energy-related products to virtually all physical products, with limited exemptions such as food, feed, and medicinal products. The European Commission describes the DPP as a digital identity card for products, components, and materials that will support sustainability, circularity, and legal compliance. Source: European Commission ESPR overview
This does not mean every product needs a passport immediately. ESPR is framework legislation. Product-specific requirements will be developed through delegated acts, supported by stakeholder consultation, impact assessments, and working plans.
In April 2025, the European Commission adopted the first ESPR and Energy Labelling Working Plan for 2025-2030. The priority products identified for the coming years include steel and aluminium, textiles with a focus on apparel, furniture, tyres, mattresses, and a number of energy-related products. The Commission also plans horizontal measures on repairability, including a repairability score, and recyclability requirements for electrical and electronic equipment. Source: European Commission 2025-2030 working plan summary
There are also sector-specific regimes that should be considered separately. The EU Batteries Regulation introduces battery passports accessed via QR code, while the new Construction Products Regulation introduces Digital Product Passports for construction products. Source: European Commission Batteries Regulation news Source: European Commission Construction Products Regulation news
Technical preparation is also underway. The Commission has stated that DPP rollout work includes rules on identifiers and data carriers, access rights to DPP information, and the establishment of a DPP registry and web portal. Source: European Commission ESPR implementation page
The message for manufacturers is clear: the exact timeline depends on the product category, but the direction is set. Products sold in the EU market will increasingly need reliable, accessible, product-specific digital information.
Why waiting can be expensive
Many organizations still treat the Digital Product Passport as a future compliance requirement. That is understandable. Detailed requirements are not yet final for every category.
But waiting creates its own risk.
First, product data is rarely ready in one place. Information that may be needed for a future passport can sit across multiple systems, markets, suppliers, business units, and document formats. Mapping, cleaning, structuring, approving, and governing that data takes time.
Second, packaging and labeling decisions have long lead times. Once a company chooses a data carrier, label position, packaging process, scan flow, and integration model, changing direction later can be costly.
Third, a compliance-only rollout may miss the biggest opportunity. The DPP will create a new scan moment on the product. That scan moment can simply open a digital record, or it can become the trusted entry point for authentication, warranty protection, product registration, instructions, service flows, circular economy content, and customer engagement.
Companies that start earlier can use pilots to validate the carrier, data model, scan experience, and internal workflow before deadlines arrive.
The overlooked decision: what will users scan?
A Digital Product Passport only works when the physical product can be connected to its digital record. That makes the on-product link one of the most important decisions in the whole program.
For many DPP scenarios, a standard data carrier such as a QR code, barcode, or Data Matrix code may provide access to the required information. These formats are familiar, inexpensive, and easy to scan.
But access is not the same as authenticity.
A copied QR code can still lead to a real passport. If that copied code is printed on a counterfeit product, the user may see legitimate-looking digital information even though the physical product is fake. The digital record may be real, but the physical-digital connection is not trusted.
That creates a gap in DPP planning. A passport can describe the genuine product, but a plain copied code does not prove that the item in the user’s hand is the genuine product.
This is why the product identity layer matters.
QR access vs. secure product identity
The goal is not to replace every QR code. The goal is to decide what the scan should achieve.
If the scan only needs to open information, a standard code may be enough for some use cases. If the scan also needs to confirm product authenticity, protect brand value, and support customer interaction, the carrier must become part of a secure product identity.
| Compliance-only data carrier | Secure product identity |
|---|---|
| Opens a digital record | Opens a digital record and verifies the physical product |
| Can often be copied, photographed, or reprinted | Designed to resist copying and cloning |
| Supports access to passport information | Supports DPP readiness, authentication, warranty protection, and engagement |
| Limited ability to identify counterfeit scans | Can generate authentication and market intelligence |
| Mainly a compliance cost | Creates value beyond compliance |
One secure identity, three returns
This is where the business case changes.
If a manufacturer treats DPP as a stand-alone project, the investment may look like a pure compliance cost. The company creates data structures, connects systems, updates labels, trains teams, and builds governance mainly to satisfy future requirements.
If the same product identity is also used for anti-counterfeiting and customer engagement, the economics are different.
A secure product identity can become the shared foundation for three outcomes.
1. DPP readiness
Each product, package, or component can be connected to structured digital information. As product-category requirements evolve, the same identity layer can support the passport content, scan flow, access rules, and lifecycle information needed for compliance.
This allows companies to prepare gradually instead of rushing to create a last-minute, single-purpose DPP rollout.
2. Brand and revenue protection
Counterfeit products do more than create lost sales. They can damage customer trust, increase warranty fraud, create liability risks, distort distribution channels, and weaken brand reputation.
A secure product identity gives customers, distributors, field teams, and service partners a practical way to check whether a product is genuine. It can also help brands identify suspicious scan patterns and locations, giving teams better intelligence on where counterfeit activity may be appearing.
3. Direct customer engagement
Every scan is a moment of attention. Once a customer, installer, distributor, service technician, or recycler scans the product, the brand has an opportunity to deliver relevant content and create a useful digital experience.
That experience can include manuals, installation instructions, safety content, warranty registration, service flows, loyalty programs, spare parts information, recycling guidance, or product-specific offers.
Instead of sending users to a generic website, the brand can provide information connected to the exact product being scanned.
Why the internal project load matters
For global manufacturers, the most difficult part of DPP readiness is often not the technology itself. It is the internal project burden.
A real rollout may involve packaging, printing, compliance, IT, product data, marketing, customer service, legal, procurement, regional teams, suppliers, and external implementation partners. Each group has its own systems, timelines, constraints, and priorities.
This is why a narrow compliance project can become difficult to move forward. It touches too many teams for too little immediate return.
A combined secure product identity program is easier to justify because it supports multiple objectives at once. It gives compliance teams a DPP-ready foundation, brand protection teams an anti-counterfeiting tool, marketing and service teams a customer engagement channel, and leadership a stronger return on the same physical rollout.
How Authentic Vision helps
Authentic Vision provides secure product digitalization by giving physical products a unique, copy-resistant identity and connecting that identity to digital value such as product authentication, Digital Product Passport content, and customer engagement. Authentic Vision’s Holographic Fingerprint technology, smartphone-based authentication, and backend infrastructure are designed to bridge the physical product and the digital experience.
For manufacturers, this means the product link can do more than open a passport. The same scan can help verify authenticity, deliver product-specific information, support service or warranty flows, and create intelligence for the brand.
The practical advantage is implementation focus. Instead of launching separate projects for DPP access, anti-counterfeiting, and engagement, companies can build one secure identity layer and connect additional use cases over time.
Authentic Vision’s approach is designed to minimize disruption by integrating into existing labels, packaging processes, and enterprise systems where possible. The result is a scalable foundation for secure product digitalization, not another isolated compliance tool.
How to start preparing now
Manufacturers do not need to wait for every delegated act to begin. The most useful first steps are practical and low-regret.
The critical decision is not only what data the passport will contain. It is how the physical product will be trusted as the entry point into that data.
Looking ahead
The Digital Product Passport is one of the most important shifts in product information management in decades. It will change how product data is created, governed, accessed, and trusted across the lifecycle.
Companies that treat DPP as a last-minute compliance expense may get the passport online, but miss the larger opportunity. Companies that treat DPP as part of secure product digitalization can create a stronger foundation: one product identity that supports regulatory readiness, brand protection, and customer engagement.
That is the opportunity today.
One secure product identity. One scan. Three sources of value.
Ready to make your products DPP-ready and secure? Request a free sample kit or talk to Authentic Vision about building a secure product identity foundation for your products.