Implementing the Digital Product Passport: costs, data and technical challenges

Complying with the Digital Product Passport is not a labelling project: it is a data project that runs across the supply chain. Most difficulties are not in the QR technology but in obtaining reliable data from third parties and keeping it verifiable for years.

1. Supplier data

Composition, material origin and footprint depend on multi-tier suppliers that often share neither formats nor systems. The first bottleneck is contractual and operational: agreeing what data is delivered, in what format and with what proof of authenticity.

2. Interoperability

ESPR requires open, interoperable standards. A closed solution that only works with one vendor's software is a risk: if you change provider, the passport must remain readable and verifiable. Standard identifiers and exportable data are the safe choice.

3. Long-term persistence and integrity

A product may be in use for ten or twenty years. The passport must stay accessible and its content must prove it has not been altered. Anchoring evidence on a distributed ledger with a timestamp solves the integrity part without depending on a single server staying up.

4. Costs

The real cost lies in ERP and PLM integration and data collection, not in issuing the identifier. A pilot with a few references lets you estimate cost per product before scaling and prioritise the categories with the nearest obligation.

5. Access control and confidentiality

Not all information is public: some is reserved for recyclers, authorities or partners. The design must separate access levels and avoid exposing trade secrets, while still proving the integrity of restricted data.