GEN – 1486.00. The European Commission has presented its intentions on the draft standardisation request for the Digital Product Passport (DPP) system.
Presentations from DG GROW and colleagues
At the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Consultation Forum of 9 June 2023, and then again in a dedicated webinar on 12 June 2023, the European Commission services from DG GROW, DG ENVI, DG DIGIT and DG CONNECT presented the draft standardisation request on the DPP system.
Digital Product Passport
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a system introduced in Article 8 of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) proposal. It is a decentralised database that collects essential product information in a coherent way, for consumers, value-chain partners, and authorities.
Although introduced by the ESPR, it may be extended to other pieces of legislation as well, including those applicable to toys, detergents, critical raw materials, construction products and batteries. Aspects already covered by an equivalent IT system like EPREL or SCIP will be exempt from the DPP.
Draft standardisation request
The standardisation request does not deal with substantive DPP data. It concerns only the DPP system, which refers to the set of standards and protocols related to the IT architecture.
The DPP is supposed to be a fully decentralised database, which is to say that each economic operator that has a DPP obligation hosts their DPP data on their own servers or servers of their IT service providers. This data should be accessible on a need-to-know basis via a data carrier placed on the product. A DPP must be uniquely linked to a product, with three possible levels of granularity:
- the model level,
- the batch level (considers production location and time, relevant e.g. for carbon footprint),
- and the item level (the specific product in hand).
Which data must be in the DPP and at which level of granularity will be specified product by product in the ESPR delegated acts.
The DPP architecture and protocols should ensure full interoperability of the decentralised system. The areas for which standards must be developed include:
- Unique identifiers
- Data carriers
- Links between physical product and digital representation, including look-up mechanism
- Access rights management
- Interoperability (technical, semantic, organisation), including data exchange protocols and formats and data processing (introduction, modification, update)
- Data authentication, reliability, integrity
- Data security and privacy
A landscaping report on available standards for the DPP has been commissioned and is available here.
Next steps
The draft standardisation request stipulates that the deliverables must be finished by 31 December 2025. The request is addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. Comments on the draft standardisation request can be sent to Michele Galatola (michele.galatola@ec.europe.eu) by 16 July 2023.
The ESPR is expected to be adopted before the end of 2023 with entry into force in 2024.
Additional information
Presentations and meeting materials will become available at this link in due time.
A recording of the webinar is available here.
Related documents and links
- GEN – 1486.01 – DG GROW presentation on DPP draft standardisation request