The eight technical standards that define the Digital Product Passport.
The Ecodesign Regulation makes the Digital Product Passport mandatory. What it looks like technically is set by a separate European series of standards: EN 18216 to EN 18246. All eight have been published since September 2026. This page shows what each one governs, worked through on a real product.
The regulation sets the obligation. The standard sets the implementation.
The Ecodesign Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 establishes the Digital Product Passport. Delegated acts then set out, for each product group, what information a Digital Product Passport has to contain. What neither of them says: how that information looks technically.
That gap is closed by Joint Technical Committee 24 of CEN and CENELEC with eight horizontal standards. Horizontal means they apply across product groups. Textiles, batteries, furniture or electronics: identification, data carriers, exchange format and the framework for access rights follow the same rules everywhere.
For IT and product data teams this is the more relevant level. A delegated act defines which fields you have to supply. The standards say in what form, through which interface, with what permission logic and over what period. That decides system architecture, not copy blocks.
Presumption of conformity means the authority assumes the legal requirements are met as long as nobody shows otherwise. The burden of proof does not sit with your company.
That presumption arises when a standard is cited in the Official Journal of the EU and applied correctly, and it covers exactly the requirements that standard addresses. Not everything across the board.
This makes the series the reference framework for any DPP architecture, even before the first delegated act for your own product group applies. If you deviate from it, you cannot use the presumption of conformity and have to prove conformity another way.
One product, eight standards
Worked through on an electric toothbrush: select a standard to see what it sets out, which EN sits behind it and what it means on the product itself.
The technical standards make sure every product is uniquely identifiable and that its data stays reliably available across the entire lifecycle. They come from the EU framework of the Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) and from established standards such as GS1 and ISO/IEC, and they apply to all manufacturers, distributors, authorities and recyclers along the value chain.
Worth knowing
Together, these eight standards form the infrastructure of the Digital Product Passport: from unambiguous access through to current, trustworthy information across the entire lifecycle.
Secure & trustworthy
Protection against counterfeiting, tampering and data loss.
Understandable & connected
Every system speaks the same language.
Sustainable & future-proof
Supports repair, reuse and recycling.
The eight standards govern the technology of the Digital Product Passport. Which product data it has to contain is set by the delegated act for the relevant product group.
- Underlying standard:
The eight standards and what they set out.
| No. | Standard | Governs | Relevance in your project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EN 18219:2026Unique Identifiers | A globally unique identity at model, batch or item level. | Master data logic, serial number ranges, ERP and PLM integration. |
| 2 | EN 18220:2026Data Carriers | Permitted data carriers (QR, Data Matrix, NFC/RFID), placement, readability, print quality. | Packaging design, label printing, processes on the production line. |
| 3 | EN 18239:2026Access Rights Management, Information System Security and Business ConfidentialityNot yet in the Official Journal | Role-based views and protection of confidential business information. | Permission concept, data classification, alignment with IT security. |
| 4 | EN 18223:2026System Interoperability | A shared, standardised data format across all actors. | Data model, field structure, mapping from existing systems. |
| 5 | EN 18216:2026Data Exchange Protocols | Secure, machine-readable transfer between systems. | API strategy, connecting distributors, partners and service providers. |
| 6 | EN 18221:2026Data Storage, Archiving and Data Persistence | Storage, versioning and long-term availability of the data. | Hosting model, backup, retention across the product lifetime. |
| 7 | EN 18246:2026Data Authentication, Reliability and IntegrityNot yet in the Official Journal | Authenticity of the data source, protection against undetected change, traceability of changes. | Signature methods, audit trail, approval processes for data changes. |
| 8 | EN 18222:2026APIs for Product Passport Lifecycle Management and Searchability | Updates across the lifecycle and findability of Digital Product Passports. | Operating model, change processes, responsibilities after go-live. |
Publication and citation in the Official Journal are two separate steps. The first six standards appeared in May 2026 and are cited in the Official Journal through Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736 of 14 July 2026. EN 18239 and EN 18246 were published on 16 September 2026 but are not yet cited, so the presumption of conformity does not apply to them yet. Status: October 2026.
Standardisation is committee work. And that takes time.
The eight standards are written in Joint Technical Committee 24 of CEN and CENELEC. The national standards bodies of the member states take part, and through them experts from industry, testing and public administration. Decisions are made by consensus. That explains why the process takes as long as it does, and why numbering, titles and the status of individual standards can change right up to the end.
Founder and CEO Thomas Rödding is personally active in this standardisation work: in a personal capacity as Co-Chair of CEN-CENELEC JTC 24, as Vice Chairman at DIN and, since spring 2026, in the newly constituted ISO/IEC JC5, the global standardisation body for the Digital Product Passport with around 50 participating nations.
For your own planning this mainly means reading the state of the standards as a snapshot. Six of the eight carry the presumption of conformity today, two do not yet. None of that changes the work on your own product data, which is the same in every scenario.
The Digital Product Passport is not a feature. It is infrastructure.
Reading the eight standards takes a day. The effort sits somewhere else: in your own systems. Bringing product data together from ERP, PLM and PIM, clarifying responsibilities, building interfaces that still deliver in five years. How fast that goes depends less on the standard than on the state of your data, and on whether the infrastructure for it is already in place.
That is the infrastructure Narravero runs: in productive use at companies such as bonprix, B&W International and COR, hosted in the EU and fully GDPR compliant. Narravero is a GS1 Germany Solution Partner and won the Global DPP Excellence Award in 2025.
The architecture makes the difference: Battery Passport, ESPR product passports and existing traceability requirements run on one infrastructure. Build it properly once and you do not rebuild it for every regulation.
What is already running in production.
Technical standards for the Digital Product Passport
Are the EN standards for the Digital Product Passport mandatory?
Standards are not mandatory in themselves. What is mandatory is the Ecodesign Regulation together with the delegated acts for each product group. Once a standard is cited in the Official Journal of the EU, applying it correctly does create the presumption of conformity, limited to the requirements that standard covers. In practice: apply it and proving that part becomes simpler. Deviate from it and you have to demonstrate conformity another way.
What is the difference between the ESPR and the EN 18xxx standards?
The ESPR is the legal framework: it introduces the Digital Product Passport and empowers the Commission to set product-group-specific requirements by delegated act. Those acts determine what information a Digital Product Passport has to contain.
The EN 18xxx standards describe the technical implementation: identification, data carriers, data format, transfer, storage, access rights and authenticity. They apply across product groups. More on this in the Ecodesign Regulation guide.
How much does it matter that two standards are not yet in the Official Journal?
For project planning, hardly at all. All eight standards have been published since September 2026 and are therefore available in substance. Six are additionally cited in the Official Journal and carry the presumption of conformity. They cover the layers that need the most lead time: identifiers, data carriers, data model, interfaces, storage and lifecycle. That is exactly where the work sits that takes time internally: bringing data sources together, clarifying responsibilities, adapting processes.
For EN 18239 and EN 18246, that is access rights and authenticity, citation is still pending. Until then you cannot argue that you meet them through the presumption of conformity. Technically they are applicable, and in a cleanly built architecture they can be added later without touching the data model again.
What happens to GS1, ISO and other existing standards?
The European series does not replace them, it builds on them. Established methods for product identification and for encoding data carriers remain usable as long as they meet the requirements of the relevant EN. If you already work with standardised identifiers and codes, you are not starting from zero.
Do these standards also apply to the Battery Passport?
The Battery Passport has its own legal basis in the EU Battery Regulation and does not run through the ESPR. The technical infrastructure, however, is largely the same: unambiguous identification, data carriers, interfaces and role-based access follow the same logic. Build for the Battery Passport and you build the basis for further product groups at the same time, with data models and mandatory fields adapted per product group. More on this in the Battery Passport guide.
Is your product data architecture standards-ready?
In 30 minutes we go through your product group, your data sources and the time this realistically takes. No sales pitch, just an honest self-assessment.
Information as of October 2026. The standardisation process in CEN-CENELEC JTC 24 is ongoing; numbering, titles and status of the standards may change. This page does not replace legal advice.