Digital Product Passport (DPP) guide: EU requirements and preparation for brands.

19 / 06 / 2025

The EU's Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is reshaping the retail landscape, transforming Digital Product Passports from emerging concept to business imperative. As your technology partner, Worldline helps you understand not just what's required, but how to turn these requirements into strategic advantage. Smart businesses are asking the right questions: How will this impact operations? When should we act? What capabilities do we need to build? The answers to these questions determine whether DPPs become a compliance burden or a catalyst for innovation and growth.

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Changes to come with DPP

Challenges to overcome

How to prepare for DPP

Ready to take action?

What's the DPP's impact on your business?

Get clear answers to the three questions every business leader is asking:

Absolutely, if you're selling physical products in European markets. The scope is comprehensive, covering batteries, textiles, electronics, furniture, construction materials, and beyond. Whether you're a global brand or specialised retailer, if your products reach EU consumers, compliance isn't optional—it's table stakes for market access.
The window for strategic preparation is now. While implementation timelines vary by category, successful organisations begin building capabilities immediately:
- Today: Assess your current data and systems readiness
- Next 12 months: Develop pilot programs and proof-of-concepts
- 18-36 months: Scale implementation across product portfolios
- Ongoing: Continuous optimisation and expansion
Early movers gain competitive advantage. Late adopters face rushed implementations and higher costs.
Partner with a DPP service provider to identify the DPP data gap and define a DPP implementation strategy.

Ready to transform DPP compliance into a growth opportunity?

As CIRPASS Consortium members helping shape EU DPP standards, we can help you turn the DPP requirements into a business opportunity.

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Changes to come with Digital Product Passports: Transformation opportunities

Now that you understand the mandatory requirements, DPPs can become powerful strategic tools that transform compliance investments into competitive advantages.

ESPR transforms products into information ecosystems, creating differentiation opportunities for transparency leaders.

Circular economy services convert compliance costs into competitive advantage and new revenue streams.

Real-time sustainability data empowers values-based purchasing and enables premium pricing.

Sophisticated system integration positions early adopters as retail innovation leaders.

Challenges to overcome with DPP

two women preparing packages for small business

Complex data requirements

Despite the challenge of collecting and maintaining unprecedented product lifecycle data across thousands of stock-keeping units (SKUs), brands who master this complexity gain a competitive edge through superior product storytelling and enhanced consumer trust. Retailers can leverage comprehensive DPP data to create differentiated shopping experiences that highlight sustainability features, potentially commanding premium pricing for products with superior environmental credentials. Forward-thinking organisations are transforming this data challenge into a strategic asset by integrating product lifecycle management metrics directly into product development workflows, driving innovation while ensuring compliance.

Fragmented supply chains

While fragmented global supply chains complicate DPP implementation, companies that overcome these challenges create unprecedented transparency that builds consumer confidence and reduces business risk. By extending visibility into tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers, brands not only ensure compliance but gain early warning systems for potential disruptions while building supply chain transparency that addresses ethical concerns. Retailers who develop effective verification systems for sustainability claims create a powerful trust advantage in a marketplace increasingly sceptical of greenwashing.

High cost of compliance

Though DPP implementation requires significant investment in technology, processes, and expertise, organizations approaching this strategically will discover ROI beyond compliance through operational efficiency gains and consumer loyalty. Forward-thinking brands can use DPP requirements to rationalize product portfolios, simplify material selections, and streamline supplier networks—creating cost savings that offset implementation expenses. For retailers, the enhanced product data enables more sophisticated merchandising strategies and creates opportunities for value-added circular economy solutions around product maintenance, repair, and end-of-life management.

Cybersecurity & data sovereignty

While protecting proprietary information in an era of radical transparency presents challenges, brands that develop sophisticated data governance frameworks create powerful barriers to counterfeiting and unauthorized distribution. Retailers who establish trusted DPP ecosystems gain competitive advantage through enhanced consumer confidence in product authenticity and sustainability claims. By developing nuanced approaches to information sharing that protect intellectual property while meeting transparency requirements, companies transform a potential vulnerability into a strategic asset that reinforces brand value.

How to prepare to DPP: A roadmap for readiness.

DPP will be mandatory from February 2027, so the time to transition toward greater transparency, traceability, and sustainability is now. Organisations that begin preparing today will be better positioned to lead in this emerging landscape, meet compliance requirements, and unlock new value through circular economy models and trusted product data.

4 next steps:

1.

Understand the regulations

The EU's Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) mandates comprehensive product information transparency through Digital Product Passports. For your business, this means identifying which product categories face initial implementation requirements and when. Products without compliant DPPs will lose access to the European market, directly affecting your revenue and distribution strategy. Beyond compliance risk, these regulations will transform your product development process, requiring sustainability considerations from initial design through to end-of-life. Review your portfolio against the implementation timeline and assess how these transparency requirements might expose competitive vulnerabilities or create differentiation opportunities in your market segment.

2.

Conduct a data assessment

Digital Product Passports require unprecedented product information – from material composition and sourcing locations to carbon footprint calculations and repair instructions. Evaluate your current data ecosystem to identify what information already exists in your PLM, ERP, and supplier management systems versus what must be newly collected. The most challenging data typically involves tier-2 and tier-3 supplier information, chemical composition details, and verified sustainability metrics. This data will come from various sources: direct suppliers, manufacturing partners, third-party certifications, and internal engineering teams. Applying data governance frameworks and supplier requirements now will prepare your organisation for systematic collection of this critical information.

3.

Create a proof of concept

Start your DPP journey with a focused pilot project involving representative products from your portfolio. Select items that showcase different supply chain complexities and data challenges to maximize learning. The proof-of-concept should validate your data collection processes, test integration between systems, and evaluate the consumer-facing presentation of sustainability information. Involve key stakeholders – from product development and manufacturing to marketing and legal teams – to ensure cross-functional alignment. Document implementation challenges, resource requirements, and unexpected benefits to create a blueprint for broader deployment. This controlled experiment builds organisational capability while managing implementation risks.

4.

Scale and integrate

Once your proof-of-concept validates your approach, develop a phased implementation strategy across your product portfolio. Integrate DPP requirements directly into product development workflows, making passport readiness a standard launch criterion. Transform manufacturing processes to capture required data automatically during production, potentially through connected equipment and scanning technologies. Update your quality assurance systems to verify DPP data accuracy alongside product specifications. Establish continuous improvement mechanisms to refine your approach as regulations evolve and consumer expectations increase. Organisations that successfully embed DPP creation into core business processes transform a compliance requirement into a strategic capability that drives business value.

Why do DPPs matter to consumers?

55%

of consumers willing to pay more for eco-friendly brands

50%

of Gen-Z willing to switch away from their preferred brand for sustainability

67%

of consumers concerned about product authenticity when buying online

Ready to start your DPP journey?

The 2027 deadline may seem far away, but preparing your brand for this green transformation takes time. Worldline's proven Digital Product Passport services helps you navigate compliance requirements while uncovering opportunities for sustainable growth. Our experts are here to help you build your DDP roadmap today.

Joint Worldline DPP Leadership Program today!