The EU Digital Product Passport for fashion brands

Every garment sold in the EU will get a Digital Product Passport: a page behind a QR code with what it's made of, where and how. The textile rules are still being written, so this is what is decided, what is expected and what a brand can do now.

#What it is

A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a digital record of one product, reached through a data carrier on the product or its label, usually a QR code. Customers, resellers, repairers, recyclers and authorities can all read it.

It comes from the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781). The regulation entered into force in July 2024. It sets the framework, and each product group then gets its own rules in a delegated act.

#What is decided for clothing

Textiles and apparel are one of the first priority product groups in the Commission's ESPR working plan for 2025–2030. The European Commission lists the end of 2027 as the indicative date for adopting the textile delegated act. The detailed requirements, and the date they start to apply, come with that act.

One rule already applies. Since 19 July 2026, large companies may not destroy unsold clothing, accessories and footwear. Medium-sized companies follow from July 2030. Micro and small companies are exempt from the destruction ban.

#What it will likely ask for

The exact list comes with the delegated act. The Commission has named the kinds of information it expects:

• Product identification and characteristics
• Fibre composition, as under the Textile Labelling Regulation
• Care, use and repair information
• Reuse, resale, disassembly and recycling information
• Origin information
• Who the relevant economic operators are
• Compliance and traceability documents

The duty sits with whoever places the garment on the EU market: the brand, manufacturer or importer. Distributors must make sure a passport is available for what they sell, and suppliers may be asked for the information they hold.

#How to prepare now

Most of what a passport shows is data a brand already handles during the season. The work is keeping it in one place, per style and per variant, instead of in tech packs, emails and supplier spreadsheets.

1. Keep composition per variant. Record each material with its fibre composition, such as Cotton 95%, Elastane 5%, on the variant that uses it.
2. Know your manufacturing. Record who makes each style and which processes it goes through.
3. Collect certificates as they arrive. GOTS, OEKO-TEX and other certificates belong with the materials and suppliers they cover.
4. Give every size an identifier. GTINs and barcodes per size make a passport point at one exact product.
5. Write care instructions once. Keep them with the product, so they are ready for the label and the passport.

Brands that do this during development will publish passports from data they already have.

#Passports in Tr3e

Tr3e builds a passport from the variant's own materials, components, manufacturing and certificates. You publish it as a public page and share it by link or QR code. Prices never show. See Digital Product Passports for the steps.

Tr3e follows the textile delegated act as it is written and updates the passport to match.

#Sources

• Textile apparel and the Digital Product Passport, European Commission
• Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR), EUR-Lex

#Next

• Digital Product Passports in Tr3e
• Materials, suppliers and certificates
• SKUs and barcodes