A Practical Guide to the Digital Product Passport

Who authenticates the DPP?

When it comes to transparency, traceability, sustainability, efficiency, and detecting counterfeit products, who authenticates the passport? Authenticating passports can involve various agencies and organizations, depending on the industry and region.

Some key firms include:

• Consulting firms can help businesses implement and authenticate DPPs. They provide expertise in data privacy, regulatory compliance, and technology information.
• Technology providers can help improve traceability to understand the source of materials and components used while enhancing the customer experience, so it provides useful information about a product’s sustainability and environmental impact.
• Regulatory bodies—in some regions government agencies or industry-specific regulatory bodies may oversee the authentication process to ensure compliance.
• Specialty firms that work with specific industries, such as luxury understand how to create digital identities while bringing cutting-edge visual recognition technology to authenticate luxury products such ready-to-wear fashions, bags, and accessories.

Technology Standards Affecting DPPs

Adopting technology standards is an essential step in allowing digital passports to reach their full potential. Facilitating effective data transmission is necessary to access the information contained in DPPs. The following are two standards being used to ensure accurate data can be extracted from passports.

GS1 Digital Link

The global standard (GS1) digital link turns data carriers such as barcodes and ambient Internet of Things (IoT) tags into web links. The standard leverages web links to represent rich data sets describing products using standard GS1 elements. These identifiers serve as an easy-to-access gateway to consumer information that strengthens customer engagement and supply chain traceability.

EPCIS 2.0

Electronic product code information service (EPCIS) provides a layered, extensible, and modular framework for creating and sharing supply chain data across diverse applications. It establishes a common web language for supply chain events, capturing what, when, where, why, and how these events took place. Adopting this open standard will facilitate the use of DPPs in global supply chains and ensure data interoperability.¹⁴

Choosing your data carrier

Currently, EU guidelines suggest that organizations will have the choice of what data carriers they utilize for any type of product.

The passport must be affixed to all products that fall under ESPR. Passports can direct users to a web page with detailed information about the product’s sustainability. This page would also provide details about the recycled content used in production and a thorough mapping of the supply chain.

Data carrier types compatible with DPPs include:

• Barcode: Like the QR code carrier type (a combination of hardware and software), a barcode is used to automate data collection, a simple and inexpensive way to record data.
• Near-field communication (NFC): A short-range wireless technology that allows a mobile device to act as a transit pass or credit card, quickly transfer data or instantly pair with Blue-tooth device headphones and speakers. A large advantage NFT tags have over QR codes and barcodes is their ability to be installed inside a product and not necessarily on the outside, which offers further security benefits.
• QR code: Utilized across several different industries for a multitude of purposes, the QR code could be considered the current go-to data carrier. Noted for its durability and flexibility, QR codes are widely accessible because of their easy connectivity with a smart device.
• Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags: Small, wireless devices that use radio waves to communicate information about themselves to nearby readers. RFID tags can store a range of information, from a serial number to several pages of data as well as track and identify a variety of items like products, vehicles, pets, and people.¹⁵