Operating under the European Commission’s standardization request M/604, the joint technical committee CEN-CLC/JTC 24 has established horizontal standards applicable across all digital product passports. During September, implementation progress was confirmed on two core standards:
- EN 18219: Standardizes unique identifiers for economic operators, facilities, and products (at model, batch, or individual item levels).
- EN 18220: Standardizes data carriers (2D barcodes/QR codes and optical reading), explicitly incorporating the GS1 Digital Link resolver standard.
A decentralized architecture is now confirmed
The most important design decision affirmed by these standards is that the EU is not building a central repository in Brussels to hold proprietary bills of materials, engineering drawings, or confidential supply contracts.
Instead, the system relies on a decentralized architecture:
- The manufacturer manages the data: Product and sustainability data is stored and maintained within the manufacturer’s own infrastructure or via a compliant DPP software platform.
- The central EU registry is an index: The Commission’s central registry holds only unique identifiers, core compliance metadata, and a secure resolver link directing inquiries to the manufacturer’s endpoint.
- Access is mediated by APIs: Authorities, customs, recyclers, and consumers access data in real time via secure, standardized APIs.
What this means for your business
Because product data must be served dynamically via standardized protocols, DPP compliance cannot be solved with static one-off PDFs or isolated marketing websites. You need a data foundation directly integrated with your enterprise systems (ERP/PLM) that responds to EN 18219 and EN 18220 specifications.
Read more in our guide on why a DPP is not a QR code or book a demo to see how Original Creation implements these European standards.