EU establishes Digital Product Passport Registry to support product traceability and compliance
The European Commission has adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778, setting out the operational rules for the Digital Product Passport (DPP) Registry, a central component of the European Union’s Digital Product Passport system established under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). The regulation provides the legal and technical framework for how Digital Product Passports will be registered, verified and managed before products are placed on the EU market.
While the DPP Registry creates a common EU-level index for Digital Product Passports, it does not store the complete passport. Instead, manufacturers and other responsible economic operators will continue to host the full Digital Product Passport themselves or through authorised DPP service providers, reflecting the EU’s decentralised approach to product data management.
What is the DPP Registry?
The DPP Registry serves as a secure indexing system for products that require a Digital Product Passport under EU legislation. Rather than acting as a central database for every product document, the Registry stores essential registration information, including unique registration identifiers, registration records, commodity codes where applicable, and references to the Digital Product Passport itself.
The Registry is intended to support products covered by delegated acts under the ESPR, along with batteries, construction products, toys, detergents and surfactants, and any future product groups that become subject to Digital Product Passport requirements through EU legislation.
According to the Regulation, a product requiring a Digital Product Passport cannot be placed on the EU market until its passport has been successfully registered in the Registry by the responsible economic operator.
How the Registry works
Economic operators must first complete an identity verification process before they can register Digital Product Passports. Once verified, they can submit registrations either through the Registry’s secure web interface or through an application programming interface (API). After the Registry automatically validates the submission, it generates a unique and persistent registration identifier for that product.
The Commission’s automated verification checks whether the submitted passport follows the required data structure, semantic rules, registration level and, where relevant, product commodity codes and links to backup Digital Product Passport service providers. These automated checks confirm that the registration meets technical requirements but do not replace compliance assessments carried out by market surveillance authorities.
The Registry also allows economic operators to generate secure electronic proof that a Digital Product Passport has been registered. This proof includes the product identifier, registration timestamp, identity of the verified operator and a cryptographic hash of the registered passport version. The proof remains available for 90 days and can be generated again when needed.
Supporting customs and market surveillance
One of the Registry’s primary purposes is to strengthen product compliance across the EU market.
For customs authorities, the Registry enables electronic verification that imported products requiring a Digital Product Passport have been registered before goods are released for free circulation. It also stores commodity codes for products where customs verification is required.
Market surveillance authorities receive controlled access to Registry information to support inspections, investigations and enforcement activities under applicable EU legislation. Each Member State must appoint a designated national administrator responsible for managing Registry access rights for national authorities.
Harmonising product data
A significant element of the Regulation is the creation of a semantic repository, which will provide common data models, vocabularies and semantic definitions for every product group covered by Digital Product Passport legislation.
Rather than allowing different industries or Member States to define information independently, the repository establishes common technical definitions so that Digital Product Passports can be interpreted consistently across systems, sectors and languages. The repository will also provide publicly documented APIs and machine-readable specifications free of charge.
The Regulation states that all information contained within a Digital Product Passport must comply with these common data models and semantic definitions, supporting interoperability throughout the EU.
Security, accountability and data management
The Commission will own and manage the Registry and is responsible for its operation, availability, cybersecurity and personal data protection. The Regulation requires the system to maintain detailed audit logs, record all modifications, authentication attempts and administrative actions, and implement technical safeguards against unauthorised access or data loss.
Each update to a registered Digital Product Passport is versioned and linked to its original registration identifier, allowing authorities to maintain a complete registration history. Unless sector-specific legislation requires otherwise, registration data will remain in the Registry for ten years before automatic deletion.
The Regulation also requires the Commission to establish technical support services for Registry users and to maintain guidance on registration procedures, data management and system operation.
What it means for the textile industry
Although textiles are not yet covered by a product-specific delegated act under the ESPR, the Registry establishes the digital infrastructure that future textile Digital Product Passports will rely upon.
Once Digital Product Passport requirements become applicable to textiles and apparel, manufacturers exporting to the EU will need to ensure that each required passport is registered before products enter the European market. Businesses will also need systems capable of producing Digital Product Passports that comply with the Registry’s data models, semantic requirements and verification procedures.
For textile manufacturers, brands and supply chain partners, the DPP Registry represents the administrative backbone of the EU’s Digital Product Passport framework. By separating passport hosting from central registration, the Regulation seeks to maintain industry responsibility for product information while providing authorities with a common mechanism to verify compliance, improve traceability and support market surveillance across the European Union.
