.avif)
.avif)
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is no longer a future concept. It is a legal requirement that will reshape how fashion brands design products, manage data, and communicate with customers and regulators, and 2026 is the operational year for implementation.
For brands, manufacturers, and retailers, the key question is no longer if preparation is needed, but how. This guide is written for non-technical teams looking for clarity: which regulations are coming, what they require, and what to watch closely to stay compliant.
The following sections focus on the essentials in a clear, practical way with only what matters.
Across Europe, regulators are moving from voluntary transparency to mandatory product-level information. The DPP is the tool enabling this shift.
In simple terms, a Digital Product Passport is a digital record linked to a physical product. It stores and shares information about materials, origin, durability, repair, and end-of-life: accessible to authorities, business partners, and consumers. It also vehicles digitalized information required for other regulations - it was born from ESPR but other norms already nominate it as a tool.
According to the European Commission, products placed on the EU market are responsible for over 80% of environmental impacts, largely determined at the design stage. This is why regulation is focusing on product data from the start.
Source: European Commission, Ecodesign Impact Accounting
The main regulation introducing the Digital Product Passport is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).
What it is:
A new EU regulation that sets requirements for how products are designed, produced, and documented.
The DPP will be introduced progressively for specific product groups through product-specific rules. These delegated acts will determine when a DPP is required and define requirements such as the information to be included, the applicable level of granularity and access rights.
What it means for brands:
If you sell products in the EU, you will need to provide standardized, digital information about each product.
Key points to prepare for:
What to be careful about:
The ESPR does not define one single DPP format. Instead, it sets the framework. Specific requirements will be introduced gradually by product category: fashion and textiles are among the priority sectors.
Since July 2026, the EU Digital Product Passport Registry has been operational as a central component of the DPP infrastructure. For products subject to DPP requirements, the relevant economic operator will need to register the required information in the Registry before placing the product on the EU market.
The Registry does not centrally store the full Digital Product Passport. It acts as an EU-level indexing system, storing unique identifiers, registration data and relevant metadata, while detailed product information remains decentralised. Registration can be managed through the Registry interface or via API integration.
Textile-specific DPP requirements are currently being developed under the ESPR. The European Commission currently indicates Q4 2027 for the planned adoption of the delegated act for textile apparel, although this timeline remains indicative. The delegated act will establish the product-specific requirements, including which information must be included in the DPP.
Data must be consistent across systems. Marketing claims that are not aligned with DPP data may raise red flags during audits or checks.
While DPP focuses on products, CSRD focuses on companies. The two are closely connected.
A regulation requiring large companies (and gradually SMEs) to disclose standardized non-financial information.
Even if CSRD applies at the company level, weak product data can undermine your reporting credibility.
While CSRD focuses on company-level reporting, the EU is also tightening the rules that govern how brands communicate product information to consumers.
An update to EU consumer protection law that strengthens requirements around consumer-facing product information and restricts misleading commercial practices.
This directive is more imminent and broader in scope than claim-specific measures. It covers a wider range of product communication topics, including durability and reparability information, guarantee transparency, and limits on vague or unreliable product claims and labels. This makes product-level data increasingly important as a source of consistent, verifiable information.
The rules implementing the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive apply from 27 September 2026, strengthening requirements around environmental information and consumer-facing sustainability claims.
On this topic, the proposed Green Claims Directive focuses specifically on how environmental claims are made and substantiated.
EU rules on environmental claims are becoming stricter, particularly through the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive. Companies need to ensure that environmental information communicated to consumers is clear, substantiated and not misleading.
A separate Green Claims Directive was proposed to introduce more specific requirements for explicit environmental claims, but it should not be treated as an adopted requirement when assessing current compliance obligations.
DPP is increasingly being mentioned in more and more regulations as a digitalization tool for product data, as part of the EU Single Market strategy.
There is no single mandatory dataset that applies to every Digital Product Passport. The exact information required will depend on the applicable product-specific legislation. Under the ESPR, delegated acts will determine which information must be included for each product group. Depending on the product group, this may include information such as:
The key shift is from PDFs and internal files to structured, digital data.
The ESPR also requires the economic operator placing the product on the market to make a back-up copy of the Digital Product Passport available through a Digital Product Passport service provider. This is part of the infrastructure designed to ensure that DPP data remains available throughout the required period.
Renoon supports companies across the full DPP implementation process, from regulatory readiness and data mapping to supplier data collection, system integrations, DPP creation, Registry connection and ongoing management.
This includes defining the appropriate data model and governance, connecting existing ERP, PLM, PIM, CRM or e-commerce systems, involving suppliers where information is missing, and managing the infrastructure required to keep Digital Product Passports accurate and up to date.
Companies can already start by:
Book a demo with Renoon to explore how Digital Product Passports can be implemented in a clear, structured, and future-ready way.
.png)
.avif)
.png)
