Digital Product Passport backup: the enterprise guide
ESPR requires every Digital Product Passport to have a backup copy held by an independent third party. This guide explains what that means, why the link printed on your product decides whether a backup can ever work, and how Unitag keeps your passport online when your DPP provider isn't.
Art. 10
ESPR: backup copy mandatory
Since 2013
Building QR infrastructure for brands
189
Countries served
Nothing is reprinted. Nothing is re-registered. Resolution switches, the passport stays.
In this guide
What is a DPP backup?
A Digital Product Passport is a set of product data (composition, origin, repairability, recycled content, and whatever else the product category's delegated act requires) made accessible through a data carrier on the product, in practice a QR code carrying a GS1 Digital Link. The primary passport is created and hosted by the economic operator or, more often, by a DPP provider working for them.
A DPP backup is a second, independently held copy of that passport, kept continuously in sync with the primary, whose only job is to remain accessible through the same printed link when the primary is not. It is not a second authoring platform and it does not replace your DPP provider. It exists because passports must stay available for years after the product is sold, longer than many providers, and some brands, will exist.
What it actually contains
Every published version of the passport payload, timestamped and hash-verified, indexed by the product's identifiers (GTIN, batch, serial), in the machine-readable format the category's delegated act specifies, plus a human-readable rendering for consumers. Nothing more: the backup stores what the primary published, it does not reinterpret it.
What ESPR Article 10 requires
Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, sets the technical and operational rules for DPPs in Article 10. Three of them determine who you can rely on.
A backup copy must exist
The passport must remain available for the product's regulatory lifetime, including after the economic operator or its provider ceases to exist. A copy held only by your primary provider does not survive your primary provider.
Held by an independent third party
The backup must be stored by a DPP service provider independent from the one operating the primary passport. Unitag does not author, validate or sell DPPs, which is what makes us independent.
Certified under an EU scheme
Article 10(4) tasks the Commission with defining requirements and a certification scheme for DPP service providers through a delegated act. The Commission's current timeline is 2027. We are building to its published direction and to the CEN standards already cited (EN 18219, EN 18220), and will seek certification as soon as it opens.
Status, plainly: no provider is a "certified DPP service provider" today, because the scheme does not exist yet. Treat any such claim accordingly.
Primary provider vs backup provider
The two roles are complementary, and the regulation keeps them separate on purpose. This is what each one does, and does not do.
| Responsibility | Primary DPP provider | Unitag (backup & resolver) |
|---|---|---|
| Collect supply-chain data | Yes | No |
| Model attributes per delegated act | Yes | No |
| Author and publish the passport | Yes | No |
| Operate the GS1 Digital Link resolver | Sometimes, on its own domain | Yes, on your domain |
| Hold a verified, versioned copy | Its own copy only | Yes, independently |
| Serve the passport if the other party disappears | No | Yes, from the same link |
| Monitor link health and sync freshness | Rarely | Yes, with alerts |
| Independent of the other provider | — | Yes, by design |
Why the printed link decides everything
The data carrier on your product is permanent. Once a QR code is printed on packaging, the only thing that can ever change is where its link resolves. If that link lives on your DPP provider's domain, their disappearance takes the link with it, and no backup copy anywhere can bring it back.
That is why link ownership is decided before printing, not at the moment of failure, and why Unitag is a resolver first and a backup second. It is also why we work with label converters and packaging printers, who hold the artwork when the decision is made.
| Where the printed link lives | Can a backup take over? |
|---|---|
| Your DPP provider's domain | No. The link dies with the provider. |
| Your own domain, pointed at the provider | Yes, if the backup already mirrors every identifier and serves the same URI structure. |
| Your own domain, operated by Unitag's resolver | Yes, instantly. No DNS change, no reprint, no re-registration. |
Read the GS1 Digital Link enterprise guide →
How it works (technical overview)
The printed code carries a standard GS1 Digital Link URI on a domain you control. Unitag's resolver answers it, exactly as it does for our GS1 Digital Link customers today.
// Printed on the product https://link.yourbrand.com/01/05012345678901/10/BATCH123/21/SERIAL456 // /01/ GTIN · /10/ batch or lot · /21/ serial
Own the link
The domain is registered in your name and delegated to Unitag's resolver. DNS stays under your control. No provider, including us, can take your link with them.
Sync continuously
Your DPP provider pushes every published version to Unitag through an API or webhook, or you export on a schedule. Each version is timestamped, hash-verified and stored immutably.
Monitor
Every identifier is checked for resolution, sync freshness and copy integrity. You are alerted before a gap becomes a compliance problem, from the same healthcheck engine that monitors our QR codes.
Switch, don't rebuild
If the primary is unavailable, the resolver serves the backup copy: same URIs, same identifiers, machine-readable data for authorities and a human-readable view for consumers.
What the backup serves
The passport payload as defined by the product category's delegated act, in machine-readable form (JSON-LD and the formats referenced by EN 18219 and EN 18220), with identifier syntax per GS1 Digital Link. Access tiers for consumers, professionals and authorities are preserved as published by the primary. A human-readable page is rendered from the same payload so a consumer scanning the code sees the passport, not an error.
Regulatory timeline
The obligations arrive category by category. The decision that matters most, which domain your link is printed on, has to be made before your next packaging run, whatever your category's date.
Now – 2026
Design partner phase. Link ownership fixed at artwork stage; sync integrations built with primary DPP providers; DPP Registry live since July 2026 (Implementing Regulation 2026/1778).
February 2027
Battery passport mandatory under the Battery Regulation: the first live DPP at scale, and the first to be registered in the EU DPP Registry.
2027
Delegated act on DPP service providers expected (requirements and certification scheme, ESPR Art. 10(4)). Certification opens; Unitag applies.
2027 – 2030
Textiles, iron and steel, furniture, tyres, detergents, electronics and further categories as their delegated acts land.
Why Unitag for DPP backup
Unitag is a GS1 Solution Provider headquartered in the UK with a France-based subsidiary, building QR code infrastructure for brands since 2013, and the first French provider to obtain GS1 Digital Link certification from GS1 France. Brands such as Chanel and Barnes International rely on our resolver in 189 countries.
We deliberately do not build DPP authoring tools. That keeps us independent in the sense the regulation requires, and it means we sit alongside whichever DPP provider you choose rather than competing with them.
GS1 Solution Provider with GS1 Digital Link syntax compliance and a resolver already serving luxury, FMCG and pharma brands.
Brand-owned domains operated by Unitag, so link ownership never leaves you.
Versioned, hash-verified storage of every passport payload, exportable at any time in open formats.
Healthcheck and monitoring of resolution, sync freshness and copy integrity, with alerts.
Country, language and device routing preserved on the backup, as on the primary.
EU hosting, GDPR compliance, ISO 27001 certification in progress.
See how Unitag handles GDPR compliance and EU data residency →
How to get started
We are onboarding a limited number of organisations as design partners ahead of the 2027 certification scheme. Pricing is a flat annual fee per product range, whatever the scan volume, with no per-passport authoring fees because we don't author. Design partners get founding terms.
Brands & manufacturers
One brand, one or more product ranges
Food & beverage, cosmetics, textiles, batteries, luxury. You already have, or are choosing, a DPP provider and need the independent backup the regulation expects.
Brand-owned link domain, Unitag resolver
Sync from your DPP provider or your own export
Monitoring, alerts, full export at any time
Flat fee per product range · Request pricing
DPP platforms & converters
The neutral backup behind your offer
DPP platforms that need an independent backup partner to sell compliant passports, and label converters or packaging printers who decide link ownership at artwork stage.
One integration covers all your clients
Wholesale terms; you keep the relationship
Label, link and backup as one line item
Partner terms · Request pricing
Implementation FAQ
ESPR requires the backup to be held by an independent third-party service provider. How strictly "independent" is defined will be settled by the delegated act expected in 2027. Until then, a genuinely separate provider is the only reading that is safe under every outcome.
Your own domain, operated by a resolver you can move. A link on your provider's domain cannot be recovered if the provider disappears, whatever backup exists. GS1's global resolver (id.gs1.org) is a resolver of last resort and can redirect to your domain, but it does not replace owning the link. This is the same guidance we give for GS1 Digital Link generally.
Preferably pushed by your DPP provider through an API or webhook on every publish. Otherwise, scheduled exports from your side. Either way, sync freshness and integrity status are visible in the console, and you are alerted if the sync goes stale.
The passport payload as defined by your product category's delegated act, in machine-readable form (JSON-LD and the formats referenced by EN 18219 and EN 18220), plus a human-readable rendering. Identifiers follow GS1 Digital Link syntax: /01/ GTIN, /10/ batch, /21/ serial, and the other application identifiers the resolver already supports.
Your domain is in your name, so resolution can be moved. Your full backup, every version, is exportable at any time in open formats. Nothing about your passport depends on Unitag being the one serving it.
Not yet, because the certification scheme does not exist yet. The Commission's delegated act defining it is expected in 2027. We are building to its published direction and to the CEN standards already cited, and will seek certification as soon as it opens.
No. Unitag does not collect supply-chain data, model attributes or author passports. Keep the provider you have, or the one you choose; add the backup the regulation expects.
Batteries first (February 2027, under the Battery Regulation), then textiles, iron and steel and further categories as their delegated acts land. The link-ownership decision, however, is made at your next packaging run, whatever your category's date.
Not a DPP authoring or data-collection platform.
Not a copy fetched at failure time: the copy is synced continuously, or it is not a backup.
Not a marketing microsite: it serves the regulated payload, in the regulated format.
Not a substitute for owning your link.
Be ready before the rules are.
Join the design partner programme ahead of the 2027 certification scheme, or book a demo of the resolver and backup console.