Updated 17 July 2026: the Commission’s implementing act referenced below has now been adopted. See the correction in “What is not yet decided,” and our full write-up on the Registry’s confirmed 20 July 2026 go-live.
The European Commission faces a deadline of 19 July 2026 to set up the EU Central Digital Product Passport (DPP) Registry. Here is what is confirmed in the regulation, and what is still to be decided.
What the regulation actually says
The registry is established by Article 13 of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). Article 13(1) requires the Commission to set up the registry by 19 July 2026. This is the Commission’s set-up deadline. It is not described in the regulation as a public launch, and it does not, by itself, create an obligation for economic operators to register products on that date. The Commission’s own DPP Registry page has since confirmed a separate, later date for when the Registry actually becomes usable: 20 July 2026, for the Registry itself, its testing environment, and the User Guidelines.
The registry is designed as a directory rather than a data warehouse. It stores unique product identifiers and links them to the locations where the actual passport data is hosted, so that market surveillance authorities and customs can resolve a product identifier to its passport. Article 13(5) provides for a unique registration identifier that customs authorities use when products are released for free circulation.
What is now decided: the implementing act has been adopted
The detailed technical design and operation of the registry is set out in a Commission implementing act, and as of this update, that act exists: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778, adopted 16 July 2026 and published in the Official Journal on 17 July 2026. Under its own Article 24, it enters into force on 6 August 2026, twenty days after publication.
It confirms the registry’s structure, namely a secure website interface, a registration API, a verification platform, a unique-identifier scheme, a semantic repository, and a log system. It also lays down how economic operators become a “verified economic operator” able to register a DPP: via a qualified electronic signature (sole traders) or qualified electronic seal (legal entities) under the eIDAS Regulation, valid for up to three years before re-verification is required. It confirms that submitted passports go through an automated Commission check covering data structure, granularity, commodity code, and the link to the hosted passport, before a registration identifier is issued, and that registered operators can generate a downloadable proof of registration valid for 90 days.
What it means for manufacturers
Product-specific obligations to issue Digital Product Passports flow from delegated acts adopted under Article 4 of the ESPR, each on its own timeline, not from the registry set-up date itself. The practical step for manufacturers is to ensure their passports are created in a standards-based format (GS1 Digital Link) so they can be connected to the registry, and to plan for the eIDAS-based identity verification the implementing regulation now requires before you can register anything. Monitor the Official Journal for product-specific delegated acts, and plan against the 19 July 2026 set-up deadline and the Commission’s confirmed 20 July 2026 go-live.
For the full picture, see our guide to the EU Central DPP Registry and our coverage of what actually changed when the Registry went live.
