What format does the QR use?

GS1 Digital Link — an HTTPS URL that encodes structured product data in the URL path. The same standard already replacing 1-D barcodes on retail goods. Example: https://id.gs1.org/01/09506000134352/10/LOT2026Q1/21/SERIAL567 — that's a GTIN (01), batch (10), and serial number (21). The passport content itself lives at the URL the QR resolves to, published by the manufacturer.

What information will the passport contain?

The ESPR mandates that the passport include: unique product identifier (GTIN + serial), manufacturer ID, place of manufacture, declaration of conformity, EU compliance markings, instructions for use, repair / spare-parts availability, presence of substances of concern, material composition, performance characteristics relevant to repair / recycling, and end-of-life handling instructions. Different product categories will mandate different additional fields — textiles will require fibre composition, batteries will require chemistry and lifecycle data, electronics will require firmware update support windows.

Is the passport content trustworthy?

The QR carries a GS1 Digital Link URL — that part is structured and verifiable. The PAGE the URL resolves to is published by each manufacturer, with conformity overseen by national market surveillance authorities. Counterfeit-spotting depends on (a) checking whether the GTIN matches the brand's published catalog, (b) verifying the serial number's format is consistent with that brand's serial scheme, (c) reading the resolved passport for plausibility.

When does this go live?

Phased rollout. First product categories (batteries, textiles, electronics, ICT, consumer goods) start 2027. The framework regulation was adopted by the European Parliament in April 2024; delegated acts setting per-category requirements are being negotiated through 2025-2026. Manufacturers selling in the EU need to be compliant by the per-category go-live date or face market-withdrawal sanctions.

Standards · EU Digital Product Passport

What is the EU Digital Product Passport QR?

Q: What is the EU Digital Product Passport?

A regulatory framework under the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR, adopted 2024). Every consumer product sold in the EU will be required to carry a digital passport — accessed via a QR code on or near the product — containing information about origin, materials, components, manufacturing, repair, recycling, and end-of-life handling. Phased in by product category starting 2027.

By 2027, every consumer product sold in the EU will be required to carry a QR code that resolves to a Digital Product Passport — a manufacturer-published page covering origin, materials, components, repair instructions, recycling guidance, and end-of-life handling. The format is GS1 Digital Link, which our scanner already decodes today. The passport ecosystem ramps as per-category requirements take effect.

Scan a product QR → All standards →

The regulation

The EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) — adopted by the European Parliament in April 2024 — establishes the Digital Product Passport (DPP) as a regulatory instrument for the circular economy. The headline ambition: every consumer product sold in the EU should be traceable end-to-end, with sustainability and repairability information visible to consumers, repairers, recyclers, market-surveillance authorities, and customs.

The DPP is not a single document or format — it's a set of requirements about what information must be machine-readable for each product category. Per-category requirements are being negotiated through 2025-2026 via delegated acts; first go-live targets:

2027: batteries (already covered by the EU Battery Regulation), textiles, electronics, ICT equipment, furniture.
2028-2030: construction products, chemicals, toys, white goods.
2030+: remaining categories — food and pharmaceuticals are partly excluded (they have their own regulatory regimes).

Products that don't meet the requirements when their category goes live cannot be placed on the EU market.

The QR format: GS1 Digital Link

The QR itself encodes a GS1 Digital Link URL — the same standard already replacing 1-D barcodes on retail products. A Digital Link URL looks like:

https://id.gs1.org/01/09506000134352/10/LOT2026Q1/21/SERIAL567

The path segments after the domain are GS1 Application Identifiers (AIs) paired with values:

/01/ — GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), the 14-digit unique product code.
/10/ — Batch / lot number.
/11/ — Production date (YYMMDD).
/15/ — Best-before date.
/17/ — Expiry date.
/21/ — Serial number.
/8200/ — Product information URL (linking to the passport itself, when not co-located on the GS1 host).
Many more, defined by the GS1 General Specifications.

The DOMAIN of the URL determines where the passport content lives. Most manufacturers will host their own passport pages at their own domains; the GS1 resolver service routes id.gs1.org URLs to the correct manufacturer page based on the GTIN.

What's in the passport itself

The ESPR mandates a common core of information that must be machine-readable from every passport, with category-specific extensions on top. The current draft delegated acts cover:

Identification

Unique product identifier (GTIN + serial)
Manufacturer identity + place of manufacture
Manufacture date
EU compliance markings (CE, energy label class)

Materials & composition

Material composition (down to specific compounds in some categories)
Presence of substances of very high concern (SVHCs)
Recycled-content percentage
Conflict-minerals declaration where relevant

Repair & spares

Repair instructions (where consumer-repairable)
Spare-parts availability window
Repair difficulty / disassembly score
Authorized-repairer network

Recycling & end-of-life

Disassembly instructions
Material-separation guidance for recyclers
WEEE / battery / packaging-waste category codes
Take-back / collection-scheme info

Performance & use

Energy efficiency class
Expected lifespan / cycles (for batteries, washing machines)
Firmware update window (for electronics)
Instructions for use

Compliance & provenance

Declaration of conformity (DoC)
Test certificates (for regulated categories)
Supply-chain due-diligence statements
Customs / import documentation cross-references

Who uses the passport, and how

Consumers: scan to see materials, repairability, expected lifespan, and recycling instructions. Useful for repair vs replace decisions, for verifying authenticity, and for sustainability-conscious purchasing.
Repairers: scan to access disassembly instructions, spare-parts availability, and authorized-repairer status.
Recyclers: scan to identify material composition and separation guidance — critical for high-value recovery streams (lithium-ion batteries, rare-earth magnets, technical textiles).
Customs / market surveillance: verify CE marking, declaration of conformity, supply-chain provenance.
Second-hand markets: verify product authenticity, ownership history, repair records.

Counterfeit risk

The DPP doesn't itself solve counterfeiting — a fraudster can clone any QR. The real anti-counterfeit signal is the combination of:

GTIN matches the brand's published catalog. An obvious-fake QR uses a GTIN that doesn't exist in the brand's range.
Serial number follows the brand's scheme. Brands publish serial-format rules (length, character set, checksum if any); counterfeiters often miss these.
Passport content is hosted on the brand's actual domain. A QR resolving to id.gs1.org/... that redirects to brand-name.lookalike-domain.com is suspicious.
The serial appears in the brand's authenticity-check API (where the brand publishes one).

Our scanner already decodes GS1 Digital Link URLs — surfacing the GTIN, batch, expiry, and serial. The brand-authenticity-API check is on the roadmap for the post-2027 phase when manufacturers' APIs stabilize.

Reading a DPP QR today

Although category-specific requirements aren't yet in force, several early adopters already publish DPP-compatible QRs:

Battery manufacturers (under the EU Battery Regulation, already in force).
Premium fashion brands experimenting with circular-economy claims.
White-goods manufacturers piloting repair-information QRs.
Furniture retailers publishing material-composition pages.

Scan any GS1 Digital Link QR in our scanner — the verdict shows the decoded GTIN, batch, serial, and additional AI fields, and links you to the resolved passport URL. Useful for buyers verifying provenance, for repair shops checking spare-parts availability, and for sustainability-curious shoppers wanting to see what's actually inside the product.

Scan a product QR

Drop the image or use the camera. The verdict decodes the GTIN, batch, expiry, and serial — and shows you the URL the passport resolves to.

Open scanner →