A Single Registry for All EU Product Passports
Article 13 of the ESPR (2024/1781) mandates the creation of an EU-wide Digital Product Passport registry, commonly called the EU DPP registry. Required to be set up by the European Commission by 19 July 2026, this registry will serve as the central index for all DPPs across every regulated product category, starting with batteries and expanding to textiles, electronics, construction products, and beyond.
Updated 17 July 2026: the Commission’s own DPP Registry page now confirms the Registry, its testing environment, and User Guidelines go live 20 July 2026, one day after the 19 July 2026 Article 13(1) set-up deadline, which was always a Commission-facing legal deadline rather than a public launch date. The Commission has also adopted the implementing act that governs how the registry operates: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778, adopted 16 July 2026 and in force from 6 August 2026. See the full detail in our coverage of the confirmed launch.
The registry will not host the passport data itself. Instead, it functions as a directory: given a product identifier (via GS1 Digital Link), the registry returns the location of the product’s DPP data, hosted by the manufacturer or their designated DPP platform.
Technical Architecture, Per the Adopted Implementing Regulation
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778 confirms the registry’s structure and operating rules. Per Articles 3, 4, 8, and 9 of that regulation:
- Registry components: a secure website interface, an API for registering DPPs and retrieving data, a verification platform, a scheme for generating unique registration identifiers, a storage component for identifiers and customs commodity codes, a public list of verified DPP service providers, a semantic repository, a log system, and identification and authorisation schemes for users.
- Identity verification, not EORI lookup: to register a DPP, an economic operator must first become a “verified economic operator” under Article 4, proven via a qualified electronic signature (sole traders) or a qualified electronic seal from a qualified trust service provider (legal entities), issued under the eIDAS Regulation (EU 910/2014). That verified status lasts up to three years before it must be renewed. Value chain actors such as repairers, refurbishers, remanufacturers, and recyclers go through the equivalent process under Article 5.
- Automated registration checks: when a DPP is submitted for registration via the API or the secure user interface, the Commission automatically checks the data’s semantic conformity, the correct granularity level (model, batch, or item), the validity of the commodity code, and the link to the hosted passport data, before issuing a unique registration identifier. The regulation is explicit that this automated check is not proof of substantive regulatory compliance. That remains a market surveillance function.
- Availability, not a fixed uptime figure: Article 15 requires the registry to be accessible at all times except for announced maintenance, with outage records kept for at least five years. The regulation does not publish a specific uptime percentage or SLA.
What This Means for Manufacturers
You do not interact with the registry directly in most cases. Your DPP platform handles registration automatically when you publish a passport. However, you need to ensure that your platform (or your organisation directly) can complete the eIDAS-based identity verification the implementing regulation requires, and that your passport data is hosted on infrastructure the registry can link to.
Timeline
Under ESPR Article 13(1), the European Commission was required to set up the registry infrastructure by 19 July 2026. The Commission has confirmed the Registry, testing environment, and User Guidelines go live 20 July 2026. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778, which governs how the registry operates, enters into force 6 August 2026. Battery passport registration becomes mandatory from 18 February 2027, the same date by which every EU Member State must appoint the national administrator who manages that country’s registry access rights. The registry is designed to scale across all ESPR product categories as their respective delegated acts come into force.
Related Reading
- DPP Registry Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778: A Plain-Language Guide
- EU DPP Registry Launches 20 July 2026: What the European Commission Just Confirmed
- EU Battery Passport 2027 Deadline: What Manufacturers and Importers Must Do
- EU Battery Passport Cost: What Compliance Actually Costs in 2026
- ESPR Compliance Software: A Buyer’s Guide for the EU Digital Product Passport
- EU Battery Passport for SMEs: What to Prepare Before 18 February 2027
