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By 2030, every piece of clothing entering the EU market will need to carry a Digital Product Passport (DPP), a move set to enable transparency in the fashion and textile industry. This mandatory requirement will provide consumers with detailed information about the origin and the impact of their garments, and will create new opportunities to enhance circularity in the industry.
ESPR Regulation: The challenge
The European Commission is directing this transformation through the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which is providing the framework to push companies’ initiatives forward. As the ESPR unfolds, fashion and apparel brands worldwide are getting ready to meet the new rules and requirements. However, navigating this transition can be quite challenging.
Given the complexity and the ongoing development of the ESPR regulations, professionals face the challenge of formulating effective and forward-looking compliance strategies. With new information and requirements emerging, keeping pace can feel overwhelming.
This article seeks to clarify the Digital Product Passport legislation, breaking down its key components and implications for the industry. We aim to offer practical recommendations that can help professionals create a comprehensive compliance agenda, so they can not only meet regulatory requirements, but also position themselves as leaders in the shift towards greater transparency in fashion.
What’s a Digital Product Passport?
Since the ESPR is a framework legislation, the goal of the European Commission is to establish systems that enable the consequent adoption of specific measures. The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a key tool in this process, designed to facilitate the implementation of these measures by creating a comprehensive digital record for each product. This record captures extensive data on various aspects of sustainability, circularity, and legal compliance, ensuring that products meet the rigorous standards set by the ESPR.
The DPP is intended to provide a centralized source of information that stakeholders, including manufacturers, regulators, and consumers, can access to gain clarity on the full lifecycle of a product. This transparency is crucial for advancing the goals of the ESPR, as it enables more informed decision-making and fosters trust in the practices.
These passports may include information on various aspects such as:
Technical Performance: Details on the product's functionality, durability, and efficiency, ensuring that it meets technical standards and performs as intended throughout its lifecycle.
Environmental Sustainability Performance: Information related to the environmental impact of the product, including carbon footprint, resource usage, and efforts to minimize ecological harm during production, use, and disposal.
Circular Aspects: Data on how the product supports circular economy principles, such as its recyclability, potential for reuse, and the use of recycled or renewable materials in its manufacturing process.
Legal Compliance: Documentation that confirms the product meets all relevant legal standards and regulations, ensuring it adheres to the necessary legal frameworks within the European Union and potentially other jurisdictions.
Product-Related Information: Additional details that provide insight into the product's origin, manufacturing process, and other relevant attributes that contribute to its overall sustainability profile.
(European Commission, 2024)
How DPP Unlocks New Business Opportunities
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) regulation aims to revolutionize the way product-related information is shared across the supply chain, ensuring transparency and traceability throughout a product's lifecycle. (European Commission, 2023)
By bridging the existing gap between the growing demand for transparency from consumers, investors, and other stakeholders and the current scarcity of reliable data on product journeys, DPPs are set to play a critical role in driving sustainable practices in the industry. In the future, the data collected and displayed under DPP requirements will not only serve to inform stakeholders but also establish a foundation for sustainability standards and practices that will accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.
For fashion brands, this means greater accountability, the ability to verify claims of sustainability, and enhanced trust with consumers. Additionally, DPPs help identify inefficiencies that inform strategies to improve sustainability performance and reporting. But for fashion brands there’s much more than ethics, sustainability and reputational gains.
The DPP also presents significant business opportunities by enabling brands to establish direct connections with the product owners, even at the final stages of the product life cycle, such as resale.
Through this new avenue, fashion brands can:
- Foster deeper relationships with customers, leading to increased retention,
- Offer innovative, product-based digital experiences that enhance brand engagement,
- Capitalize on after-sales services, remanufacturing, and recycling opportunities,
- Unlock valuable Customer Data that was previously inaccessible.
These advantages position DPPs not only as a tool for compliance but as a strategic asset that can drive growth and innovation in the fashion industry (Deloitte, 2024).
How to Get Ready to Launch your Digital Product Passport
By the end of 2025, the European Commission is expected to adopt Delegated Acts on Digital Product Passports (DPPs). These Acts will define the specific types of data that brands must display on their DPPs for each product category. Additionally, the Acts will detail the operational aspects of the DPP system, including the establishment of a DPP registry, a search web portal, and the necessary IT architecture to support the system.
Following the adoption of these DPP measures in 2026, companies will be given an 18-month window to implement the required changes before the regulations become fully applicable (European Commission, 2024).
As the European Commission continues to refine and develop these regulations, fashion brands should focus on building the necessary infrastructure to comply with DPP requirements. This involves identifying critical data points across the entire supply chain, organizing this information systematically, and developing visualization tools that not only display the required data but also enhance the customer experience. Effective DPPs should offer more than just compliance—they should be designed to provide value to consumers through transparency, ease of access, and interactive features.
Compliance Software Adoption for DPP
One of the challenges brands face is the absence of a standardized template from the European Commission for creating DPPs. This means that each company must either develop its own system or adopt solutions offered by external service providers. The development of such infrastructure is a complex task that demands significant investment in time, technology, and resources.
In consideration of this challenge, companies like Renoon have stepped in to offer specialized tools and services that assist fashion brands in not only meeting regulatory requirements but also in leveraging these changes to create new revenue streams. By integrating compliance with innovative customer engagement strategies, these service providers are helping fashion brands turn regulatory challenges into opportunities for growth and differentiation in the market.
To find out how we have been supporting other companies in this path, you can talk to our team by Booking a Demo.
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