Shoppers are asking harder questions about where a product was made, what it's made of, and what happens to it when they're done with it. And increasingly, they're not willing to take a brand's word for it.
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) was designed exactly for this reason. It's becoming the biggest transformation in product data since the barcode, and is a regulation-backed requirement to prove, not just claim, that your products are what you say they are.
Brands getting “DPP ready” in 2026 are asking several questions to make sure they’re compliant:
If you're a global brand wondering how to actually structure your data, how to stay ahead of deadlines, and what Salsify is building to help, this guide is for you.
A DPP is a digital record that travels with a product throughout its entire life, from the raw materials sourced to make it, through manufacturing, all the way to how it's eventually repaired, resold, or recycled. Think of it as one verifiable, tamper-resistant source of truth.
According to Salsify's “2026 Consumer Research,” 67% of shoppers say product quality and value influence whether they trust a brand, and 54% say durability and longevity are the top signals of product quality.
The commercial case is just as compelling. According to MarketsandMarkets, the DPP market is forecast to grow from $185.9 million in 2024 to $1,780.5 million by 2030.
As for who's affected: If your brand sells physical products in the EU, this applies to you, regardless of where you're headquartered.
The most immediately impacted sectors are apparel, textiles, footwear, electronics, batteries, construction materials, furniture, and chemicals.
Here are the dates you need to know.
Teams across multiple sectors are adapting their data models, structuring compliance information, and getting their supply chains properly mapped well ahead of enforcement dates.
Here's what that looks like in practice for two industries that will be impacted first.
Batteries. Teams need to track materials across multiple supplier tiers, including critical minerals like cobalt and lithium, right back to the source. On top of that, they're structuring data to capture carbon footprints, recycled content percentages, and real-time state-of-health performance metrics across the product's lifetime.
Textiles and apparel. Brands are mapping their production from Tier 1 (the cut-and-sew facilities) all the way down to Tier 3, where raw materials originate. They're building structured records that quantify exact material composition and precise provenance for every ingredient in a product.
Regardless of sector, the brands that have started doing this now (and doing it well) share a few structural habits.
One of the most common questions brands are bringing to Salsify right now is some version of: "Where exactly does the DPP live in the platform?"
The short answer is, there's no single DPP template, and there shouldn't be.
A battery DPP and a textile DPP look almost nothing alike. One requires real-time state-of-health metrics and critical mineral provenance, while the other needs fiber composition down to the percentage and Tier 3 supply chain mapping.
A rigid, one-size module would either be too prescriptive for some categories or too shallow for others.
Instead, Salsify manages DPPs through flexible data schemas and custom properties, meaning brands can build the exact record structure their product category requires, import attributes, and layer in validation rules without rebuilding their core data architecture.
This flexibility is especially important given how the EU is rolling out DPP requirements. Rather than waiting for a single software release to unlock DPP functionality, Salsify's structure lets brands continuously add new properties and enforce new validation rules as requirements evolve.
Salsify's Intelligence Suite adds another layer to this. AI-powered quality auditing and compliance checks are embedded directly into workflows, so brands can catch data gaps and instantly flag inconsistencies.
Here’s how Salsify will help you stay compliant:
Salsify's role in the DPP ecosystem is as the central data control plane: the place where product data is structured, validated, and governed.
From there, Salsify partners with specialist blockchain and DPP infrastructure providers to handle downstream execution, routing verified data to physical carriers like QR codes and NFC tags, and making sure data can be cryptographically verified at EU customs borders.
If you're still figuring out where to start, how brands can prepare for the digital product passport is a good grounding in the foundational steps before getting into platform configuration.
With the EU registry going live in July and enforcement dates already on the calendar, the window to comfortably prepare is getting narrower by the day. Here are four practical steps to get there.
Pull together your existing product data and map it against the requirements for your specific category. You might find gaps, including missing supplier tiers, unstructured material data, incomplete provenance records, etc. Those gaps are where you should focus.
It's also worth remembering that strong DPP data starts with strong product data fundamentals. If your product pages aren't already built on accurate, complete, well-structured content, sort that out first.
The EU Central DPP Registry goes live on July 19, 2026. Products will need to be registered before they can be placed on the EU market, and to register, you’ll need structured, validated product data.
If your product information is scattered across multiple tools and teams, now is a good time to consolidate it into a single source of truth.
The current DPP requirements might (and probably will) evolve over time. The European Commission is still issuing delegated acts and defining sector-specific data requirements, and the current timelines are still subject to change.
Instead of building a rigid, static compliance solution that you’ll probably have to rebuild in 18 months, invest in an infrastructure that can absorb new properties, new validation rules, and new categories without a ground-up rebuild.
DPP requirements will ask for provenance data that goes well beyond your immediate suppliers. Tier 3 (the raw material level) is where regulators want visibility, and it's also where most brands have the least data.
Start those supplier conversations now, as it takes longer to get the data the further upstream you need to go.
The JRC blueprint is published, the EU Central DPP Registry goes live in July, and enforcement for EV batteries begins in February 2027. It’s happening.
But the introduction of DPPs isn’t just about compliance. Research from Certilogo found that 71% of consumers believe widespread DPP adoption will increase trust in brands, while 49% expect it to drive greater brand loyalty. Being compliant is another step toward being more credible.
Yes, you’ll avoid penalties, but you’ll also build the kind of verifiable, transparent product story that today’s shoppers are actively looking for.
The infrastructure to do that is available now. See how Salsify is building for DPP compliance by watching the latest product update.