The EU Digital Product Passport is a regulated digital record, attached to a product via a data carrier such as a QR code, that holds standardised information about its composition, origin, and environmental footprint. For textiles it is mandated under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and becomes a legal requirement for most apparel sold in the EU.
The DPP makes product claims auditable. Instead of a marketing statement on a swing tag, regulators, recyclers, and consumers can scan a carrier and retrieve standardised, verifiable data about what the product is, where it came from, and what it’s made of.
For textiles the requirement flows from the ESPR framework, with a textile-specific specification setting out 49 data points across four categories. The first complete specification was published by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre in May 2026.
Why it matters to brands
The hard part isn’t the QR code — it’s the data behind it. Much of the required information sits with suppliers a brand has never had to collect structured data from. Getting DPP-ready is a data and supplier programme, not a labelling exercise.