Digital Product Passport News: What Changed and What's Next

Every few weeks a new headline says the digital product passport is here, or late, or off. Read three of them and you are less sure than when you started.

Here is the plain version. Some parts are live. Some are late. One date is fixed and close. This page sorts out which is which.

At a glance:

• The plumbing is live. The EU registry opened on 20 July 2026. Six technical standards were published in the Official Journal on 15 July 2026.
• No ESPR product group has a passport duty yet. The first act, on iron and steel, is expected in Q4 2026 and has not been adopted.
• Batteries come first. The battery passport is mandatory from 18 February 2027.
• One battery rule is late. The act on who may read restricted battery data missed its 18 August 2026 deadline. A draft went out for feedback in October.
• Other laws now carry passports too. Detergents from 23 September 2029, toys from 1 August 2030, vehicles from 1 September 2032.

How the passport got here

The passport rests on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the ESPR. It is a frame. Each product group needs its own act before a passport becomes mandatory. Our plain guide to the passport covers what it holds, and our guide to what the ESPR is covers how acts get added. The steps so far, in order:

What is live today

The registry. On 20 July 2026 the Commission opened the passport registry, with a testing environment and a helpdesk. The registry stores a passport's unique identifier, plus the commodity code for goods released for free circulation. It returns a registration identifier. That identifier is not proof that the product complies, as Article 13 of the ESPR makes clear.

Nothing obliges you to register yet. No product group has a passport duty in force. Batteries are the first, on 18 February 2027.

The standards. Decision (EU) 2026/1736 cites six standards: data exchange protocols, unique identifiers, data carriers, data storage and persistence, application programming interfaces, and system interoperability. The Commission found that they meet the requirements in Articles 10 and 11 of the ESPR.

That is six of eight. The Commission's batteries page describes the decision as covering six of the eight standards developed by CEN and CENELEC. The other two are still to follow.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The destruction ban. One ESPR duty already applies without any product act. Since 19 July 2026, large companies may not destroy unsold clothing and footwear. Medium-sized companies follow from 19 July 2030. It sits in Article 25 and Annex VII of the ESPR.

What is still missing

The first product act. The Commission ran a call for evidence on iron and steel from 20 May to 12 August 2026 on its Have Your Say portal. It now points to Q4 2026 for adoption. As of late October 2026 nothing had been adopted.

The open question is scope. The industry body Orgalim wants the passport limited to intermediate products, not the machines and parts made from steel.

The battery access-rights act. Article 77(9) of the Batteries Regulation gave the Commission until 18 August 2026 to name who may read restricted battery passport data. That deadline passed. In October 2026 the Commission opened a consultation on a draft. The passport date did not move. It is still 18 February 2027.

The service-provider act. The Commission plans a delegated act on requirements for passport service providers. Its June 2026 timeline placed it in the first quarter of 2027. Other trackers give later dates, so treat it as 2027.

Textiles, tyres and aluminium. The Commission expects all three acts in Q3 to Q4 2027. Mandatory passports would follow in 2029 at the earliest, because each act applies at least 18 months after it enters into force.

A wider product law. The same June 2026 timeline lists proposals for a European Product Act and a Circular Economy Act for Q3 2026. We could not confirm that either has been published. Watch the Commission's page.

The dates to watch

Only some of these are fixed in law. The rest are Commission targets, and targets slip. Our guide on which products need a digital product passport shows what each sector faces.

The Commission set out this order in its June 2026 presentation Introduction to the Digital Product Passport.

What to do while the rules settle

Every delay on this page sits at the legal end. None of them touches the slow part. A passport is built from supplier data: materials, origin, recycled content, substances. Collecting it takes months. The battery passport starts in under four months.

That is where Bindu starts. Each supplier gets their own workspace, linked to their own systems, so nobody hands over an ERP. AI collects what is missing over email or WhatsApp, so nobody chases by hand. When the act for your product arrives, the data is already in place.

Three steps for this week:

1. Find the law that covers your product, using the sector guide above.
2. Ask your five biggest suppliers which passport data they already hold.
3. Save the Commission's passport page, and check it when this page is out of date.

If you make or import batteries, start with our guide to the battery passport and its data points.

See how it works at getbindu.com.

FAQ

Has the digital product passport been delayed? Parts of the surrounding rules have slipped. The battery access-rights act missed its 18 August 2026 deadline, and Commission timelines are indicative. The dates written into law have not moved. The battery passport is still mandatory from 18 February 2027.

Source: EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2023/1542

Is the digital product passport registry live? Yes. The Commission opened it on 20 July 2026, together with a testing environment and a helpdesk. Its operating rules are in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778.

Source: European Commission: The Digital Product Passport Registry is now live

Which product group gets an ESPR passport first? Iron and steel. The Commission expects the delegated act in Q4 2026. It had not been adopted as of late October 2026. Each ESPR act applies at least 18 months after it enters into force.

Source: European Commission: ESPR and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025-2030

Do I have to register a passport in the registry today? No. No product group has a passport duty in force yet. Batteries are first, from 18 February 2027.

Source: EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Article 13

Which standards support the digital product passport? Six harmonised standards, EN 18216 and EN 18219 to EN 18223, cover data exchange, unique identifiers, data carriers, data storage, APIs and system interoperability. The Commission published their references on 15 July 2026.

Source: EUR-Lex: Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736

Where can I check for the latest changes? The European Commission's digital product passport page, the Official Journal on EUR-Lex, and the Commission's Have Your Say portal for drafts open to feedback.

Source: European Commission: Digital Product Passport

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This article reflects the official position as of 2 November 2026. The rules are still being adopted, so dates can move. For anything after that date, check the European Commission's digital product passport page and the Official Journal on EUR-Lex. This is general information, not legal advice.