The regulation is a part of the EU's broader efforts to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and have a significant reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030.

The current state of play specifically related to Digital Product Passports is as follows:

1. 20th March 2022 saw the release of ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) Proposal. This proposal is related to the EU’s Geen New Deal efforts and relates to the 2020 Circular Economy Action plan and the Ecodesign Initiative. In the proposal Digital Product Passports are mentioned 23 times.
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2. The EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles released in March 2022 called for mandating the obligation to use Digital Product Passports in the upcoming years.
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3. The European Commission under the Digital Europe Programme launched CIRPASS. CIRPASS is a collaborative initiative to prepare the ground for the gradual piloting and deployment of a standards-based Digital Product Passport (DPP) aligned with the requirements of the Proposal for Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulations (ESPR), with an initial focus on the electronics, batteries, and textile sectors.

4. In March 2024 CIRPASS published its findings and announced the second round of the programme.

5. The ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) entered into force 18th July 2024.

6. According to the regulation "The ESPR will introduce a Digital Product Passport (DPP), a digital identity card for products, components, and materials, which will store relevant information to support products’ sustainability, promote their circularity and strengthen legal compliance. This information will be accessible electronically, making it easier for consumers, manufacturers, and authorities to make more informed decisions related to sustainability, circularity and regulatory compliance. It will allow custom authorities to perform automatic checks on the existence and authenticity of the DPPs of imported products."

7. The ESPR contains a detailed action plan. We expect Digital Product Passports to become a requirement EU-wide by 2027. However, some countries will mandate their use earlier. France has already done so in 2023. You can read more about it in our article here.

If you want to find out more details about how our solution, Product Pass, can help you prepare and benefit from Digital Product Passport implementation you can contact us here.

Simply put, a Digital Product Passport is a webpage that contains all sustainability information related to a product. A link to that webpage must be present on the product. The easiest way to do it is by attaching a QR code to a product, however it is also possible to add an NFC or RFID tag. This way instead of scanning the QR code buyer can just tap their phone on the product and the webpage will pop up.
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Product Pass is our solution that fulfills the requirements of what constitutes a Digital Product Passport in the outlined EU proposals.

However, Product Pass is more than solely a means to store sustainability information. Product Pass allows brands to have continued relationships with their customers and to track to what happens to their products past the point of sale until recycling, to ensure circular economy.

Additionally, Product Pass allows for the Digital Product Passport to act as a authenticity certificate of products to eliminate counterfeiting. rour partner brands to be compliant the moment the regulation comes into effect.

Yes, part of the Product Pass solution is that the customers not only gain valuable, tamper proof data regarding sustainability of the products they buy, but also gain an authenticity certification proof that can be transferred to a second hand buyer and to consequent buyers endlessly. All subsequent owners will be in your direct reach to launch marketing campaigns and control what happens to your products across their entire lifecycle. This way you can curb counterfeiting of your products.

The process of interacting with Product Pass is extremely easy, and anyone that is capable of purchasing products online will easily manage their digital ownership. In fact, customers do not need to take any action once they claim ownership of a product. Only if they wish to sell their product second hand, they can choose to transfer the digital ownership certificate to a new buyer. It is as easy as swiping on their screen after inputting the Product Pass account name of the buyer.

The EU has already passed the Digital Product Passport regulation. The enforcement is expected to be rolled out gradually, with being in full force by 2027. Some countries may choose to implement measures quicker to ensure reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

France is an example of this approach. The recently passed Loi AGEC (Décret n° 2022-748) went into full effect in January 2023 in France.

This regulation applies to any businesses operating within France or conducting sales in the country, provided they have an annual turnover exceeding 10 million euros in France and have sold more than 10,000 items overall. This relates to items generating waste.

Businesses will need to not deem their products as "friendly to the environment" or "having no impact on the environment due to usage of recyclable materials". the aim is to eliminate greenwashing and focus on providing raw data about the environmental impact of their products. This aims at making sure the provided information is based on facts, not empty statements.

Businesses will need to provide information to their customers about the environmental impact of all their products. This information must be freely accessible at the time of purchase.

Even if your company does not exceed the outlined threshold, becoming compliant has a range of tangible benefits regarding your relationship with customers, as outlined on our website. Additionally, each year the threshold of annual turnover and sold items that forces brands to comply to the regulation is lowered and will eventually affect all companies.

No, this is not necessary. To ensure the quickest implementation of Product Pass into your products it only requires that there will be a QR code available to scan on the product or on the associated warranty card. We provide the QR codes.

Product Pass is available for all items, from textiles and appliances to cars. We focus on expanding in the fashion industry now, since we are passionate about reducing the environmental impact of the industry and solving the multi-trillion dollar counterfeit problem. Product Pass is immediately applicable to all industries, we are available to answer any questions here.

We use blockchain solutions that do not rely on large amounts of energy consumption. The small amounts of energy that is used to sustain our operations and AI research is being generously offset to achieve the carbon positive status.