DPP timeline sector by sector: what applies when, and what to do before your date

Here is the answer to “when does the Digital Product Passport apply to us”, sector by sector, on one page. The honest summary: one date is fixed, the rest arrive one delegated act at a time, and the useful preparation starts well before any of them.

The real calendar

The foundation is already running: the EU’s DPP registry went live on 20 July 2026, with a free testing environment open to companies. Nothing is mandatory yet for most sectors, which is exactly what makes this the comfortable window to prepare in.

The one fixed date is batteries. On 18 February 2027, industrial batteries above 2 kWh, electric-vehicle batteries and light-transport batteries must carry a passport under the Battery Regulation. Every other sector follows its own delegated act under the ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, 2024/1781):

• Iron and steel: first in the 2025–2030 working plan, delegated act expected in 2026.
• Textiles and apparel: delegated act announced for 2027 (together with tyres and aluminium), applying roughly eighteen months after adoption, so obligations around 2029.
• Furniture: delegated act scheduled for 2028 in the Commission’s calendar.
• Mattresses and ICT products: acts scheduled for 2029, so obligations around 2030–2031.

Two reading notes. These timelines have already slipped by six to twelve months in the past, and they may slip again. And only your sector’s delegated act will fix the exact product scope and the granularity required: model, batch or item. Waiting for the text to learn the details is normal; waiting for the text to start everything is the expensive version.

What prepared brands are doing now

A major French appliance manufacturer, a Unitag client, is already preparing the February 2027 battery date: the product lines in scope carry GS1 Digital Link QR codes, and the passport will become one more destination behind QR codes that are already printed. No packaging change on deadline day; compliance arrives through the link, and the label never notices.

The useful preparation comes down to four workstreams, all possible before your sector is served:

• Product data. A GTIN per SKU in scope, complete and clean. This is the longest job, and it depends on no regulation.
• Company identity. Registering in the EU registry will require a qualified electronic seal for legal entities. That procurement-and-legal step takes weeks in a large organisation; better to know it now.
• The links. GS1 Digital Link QR codes placed on natural print cycles, no dedicated reprint campaign. They serve marketing and traceability today; the passport joins later.
• The test. The registry’s testing environment lets you measure the gap between your data and the official models, free, no commitment.

Start where you are

The EU built this as a staged rollout, and the winning response is staged too. A textile brand that sets its identifiers in 2026 meets its delegated act with two years of scan data and links already in production. A brand that waits handles data, links, registration and labelling in the same eighteen months, on a schedule someone else set.

Unitag’s Digital Link Resolver carries that preparation: the mapping between each GTIN and its destinations, rules by language, country and device, EU hosting with GDPR compliance, and scan analytics every team can read. The platform is certified by GS1 and listed as a GS1 Solution Provider. The GS1 Digital Link guide covers the standard in depth, and the complete technical specifications for a DPP-ready resolver are available for your technical team.

Read next

• The EU Digital Product Passport registry is live
• GS1 resolver: one printed QR code for Sunrise 2027 and the Digital Product Passport
• DPP resolver: what the European standards actually require