EU Digital Product Passport (DPP) & Product Data SEO
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a machine-readable data record, usually retrieved through a QR code, covering the origin, material composition, repairability and disposal of a product. The legal basis for the general product passport is the EU Ecodesign Regulation ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), which entered into force on 18 July 2024 and replaces the earlier Ecodesign Directive. Batteries follow their own, earlier timetable: the battery passport does not derive from the ESPR but from the EU Batteries Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542), and becomes binding on 18 February 2027. Independently of that, the ESPR obligations only arise through product-specific delegated acts. The first ESPR working plan of 16 April 2025 names textiles and clothing, iron and steel, aluminium, furniture including mattresses and tyres as priority product groups. Horizontal requirements for electrical and electronic equipment are added to these. The delegated acts are indicatively scheduled between 2026 and 2029 and become applicable no earlier than 18 months after they enter into force. For textiles this realistically means application from around 2029. The technical standards for the data carrier are being developed in parallel at CEN/CENELEC. For product data feeds and product page SEO this means that affected product groups should prepare their data structure and QR-code-ready product pages early, even though the exact deadlines per category may still shift.