Through a small code or tag on the product, called a data carrier. Scanning it with a phone opens the product’s Digital Product Passport (DPP). A QR code is the usual example. Other options include a Data Matrix code, a barcode, an RFID or NFC chip, or a digital watermark, and each product group’s rules will choose.
How does a code on a product lead to its passport?
The carrier does not hold the passport itself. It holds the product’s unique product identifier, a permanent code that works like an address and leads to where the passport data is kept. Because identifiers follow international standards, the same scan works across brands and industries.
Where on the product does it go?
On the product itself wherever possible, because packaging and manuals get thrown away while the product may be repaired or resold for years. Where size, nature or use rule that out, the carrier can go on the packaging or the documents that come with the product. As of October 2026, no product group under the Ecodesign Regulation has its passport rules yet, so the exact placement is still to be set group by group.
What happens when someone scans it?
Customers, repairers and recyclers see the information the product group’s rules make available to them, such as what the product is made of and how to repair it. Authorities may be given access to more.
How does it work for online sales?
An online buyer cannot scan a product before buying it, so the law shares the job out. The business placing the product on the EU market must give dealers and online marketplaces a digital copy of the carrier or the identifier. It has five working days from being asked. Dealers must then make the passport easy for customers to reach, including when selling online.
Where this comes from: Ecodesign Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Articles 10 and 31(2), and recital 37.