Digital Product Passport: B2B Shop Data for ESPR

The Digital Product Passport is a structured, machine-readable data set that links a physical product to its lifecycle information and makes it retrievable via a data carrier such as a QR code. It is the central transparency instrument of the ESPR, which, unlike its predecessor, addresses not only energy-related products but nearly all physical goods -- from textiles through furniture to electronics (European Commission). The regulation itself does not set concrete product requirements: each product group receives its own delegated act. The framework for this is the first ESPR working plan, which the European Commission adopted on 16 April 2025 and which names six priority product groups for the 2025 to 2030 period: textiles, furniture, mattresses, tyres, iron and steel, and aluminium (European Commission).

So far, skepticism prevails in the business community. A joint survey by the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) among more than 1,500 companies headquartered in Germany found that about half of firms associate the Digital Product Passport primarily with additional bureaucracy and rising costs (Umweltbundesamt, 2025). Only a small share of companies currently captures or shares product-related environmental information digitally along the supply chain (Umweltbundesamt, 2025). This gap is exactly what makes the DPP a data project: the real effort lies not in the QR code but in the availability, structure and provenance of the product data behind it.

The specific mandatory fields are set per product group in the delegated act, yet the basic structure is foreseeable. The data model developed by the CIRPASS initiative with the European Commission and GS1 consistently provides structured, machine-readable fields for material composition, origin, carbon footprint, durability, repairability, recycled content and sustainability claims (CIRPASS). For a B2B store this means: it is not enough to have this information as running text in a product description. It must exist as clearly labeled attributes so it can be transferred into the passport and verified.

These requirements meet an environment that is fundamentally open to the topic. 90 percent of companies see digital technologies as an opportunity for more sustainability, and 65 percent already pursue their own sustainability strategy (Bitkom, 2025). Digital product passports are regarded as a tool to reduce information deficits and support the circular economy (Bitkom, 2025). The repair angle bridges directly to the digital spare parts catalog in aftersales: anyone who already maintains spare parts and repair data in structured form has largely covered one of the more demanding passport sections.

At its core, the Digital Product Passport is an output of product data management. A PIM as the central data hub is the natural place to model, maintain and provide the required attributes in a quality-assured way. What matters is defining the passport-relevant fields as their own structured attribute group from the start: material composition, origin stages, repair and recycling data, and the conformity evidence. Prices, stock and technical master data already flow from the ERP into the PIM; the passport attributes extend this model with the regulatory sustainability and origin layer.

GS1 Germany shows what such a model can look like in practice with a preliminary standard for the Digital Product Passport: economic operators identify themselves via the Global Location Number (GLN), select the product via the GTIN and maintain the attributes in groups clustered by sustainability, product information and packaging (GS1 Germany). These clusters map one to one onto attribute groups in the PIM. The integration of PIM and store then handles the mapping of these groups onto the passport structure and the distribution to store and data carrier.

Whether a B2B store must act early or later depends on its assortment. Furthest along is the battery passport: it becomes mandatory from February 2027 and therefore first affects distributors and manufacturers around electric mobility, energy storage and industrial batteries (European Commission). For industrial batteries above 2 kWh, a separate carbon footprint declaration duty already applies ahead of the full passport. Iron and steel follow as the first ESPR product group with an indicative adoption in 2026, textiles and further groups through 2030 (European Commission).

The Digital Product Passport is not an entirely new topic but a regulatory driver that sharpens and formalizes existing requirements for product data quality. General data quality in the B2B store and the PIM deals with completeness, consistency and enrichment as the basis for conversion and fewer inquiries. The DPP sits alongside this: it requires certain attributes as binding, with traceable provenance and traceability into the supply chain. Good data maintenance is the prerequisite; the passport is the regulatory-defined output of that data.

For implementation this means: data model and output are two building blocks that belong together but are planned separately. The DPP-ready PIM data model holds the required attributes in structured form; the interface to store and registry handles the technical distribution to product page, QR code and EU registry. Anyone who plans both as independent, coordinated building blocks can respond to each new product group without rebuilding the architecture each time -- turning an obligation into a robust product data foundation.