Search for “digital product passport deadline” and you will find confident answers ranging from 2024 to 2030 — sometimes within the same article. That is not because the rules are secret. It is because the DPP arrives category by category, each with two different dates, and most write-ups quote whichever one makes the better headline.
This page is the version we wanted to find when we started: every confirmed deadline, every expected one, clearly labelled as such, in one table. We update it as delegated acts are adopted — the “updated” stamp at the top tells you how current it is, so it is worth bookmarking this page rather than the headlines.
How to read a DPP date (most articles get this wrong)
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation — ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, in force since July 2024 — creates the Digital Product Passport framework in its Articles 9 to 13. But the framework sets no product deadlines itself. Each category gets its own delegated act, which defines exactly what that category’s passport must contain and when it becomes mandatory.
That means every category has two dates, and the difference between them is where most of the confusion comes from:
- ✓Adoption — the year the Commission finalises the category’s delegated act. Nothing becomes mandatory on this date.
- ✓Application — the date companies must actually comply, at least 18 months after adoption. This is the only date that binds you.
One more detail set per category: Article 9 of the ESPR allows passports at model, batch or item level. Each delegated act picks the level for its category, which changes the workload considerably — one passport per product model is a very different job from one per individual item.
The master timeline: every date in one table
“Confirmed” means the date is written into an adopted regulation. “Expected” means it comes from the ESPR Working Plan 2025–2030 (adopted 16 April 2025) — a credible official estimate, but one that can slip, and when EU timelines slip they slip later, not earlier.
Two things stand out. First, the confirmed deadlines come from outside the ESPR — batteries, construction products, detergents and toys each have their own regulation. The ESPR categories everyone talks about (textiles, furniture, steel) are all still “expected”. Second, note the battery scope: embedded batteries below 2 kWh are exempt, so a gadget with a small built-in battery is not caught by the February 2027 date.
What has already happened
The DPP is sometimes described as if nothing has moved yet. In fact the machinery has been assembling on schedule:
- ✓July 2024 — the ESPR enters into force. Framework only: no product obligations, but the DPP system, the registry and the delegated-act mechanism all become law.
- ✓16 April 2025 — the Commission adopts the Working Plan 2025–2030, naming the priority categories (iron and steel, textiles, tyres, aluminium, furniture, mattresses) and horizontal ecodesign measures on repairability and recyclability.
- ✓9 February 2026 — the first-ever ESPR delegated acts are adopted, covering disclosure of unsold-goods destruction. A small measure, but proof the pipeline produces output.
- ✓19 July 2026 — two things at once: the ban on destroying unsold clothing and footwear applies (micro and small enterprises exempt, medium-sized until 2030), and the Commission’s deadline to set up the central DPP registry falls due. The registry is infrastructure — no company has to register anything on that day. We covered it in detail in our registry explainer.
What to watch next
The next twelve months are when “expected” starts turning into “confirmed”. On our watchlist:
- ✓Late 2026 (expected): the Commission’s proposal for the textile delegated act — the first look at exactly which data fields apparel passports will require.
- ✓~2026 (expected): the iron and steel delegated act, likely the first ESPR product act to be adopted.
- ✓Q3 2026 (expected): the Circular Economy Act proposal, which could reshape how circularity data feeds into passports.
- ✓Ongoing: the Environmental Omnibus (proposed 10 December 2025) would replace the SCIP chemicals database with the DPP — a consolidation that would make the passport the single reporting channel for substance data. Still a proposal, not law.
When any of these land, this page gets updated the same week.
What the timeline means for your category
Batteries: act now
The only category where “urgent” is honest. 18 February 2027 is confirmed, unchanged by the omnibus packages, and applies to EV, light-means-of-transport and industrial batteries above 2 kWh. Battery passports are also the first mandatory entries in the new registry. If this is you, the work should already be under way — our battery passport guide covers the required fields.
Textiles and apparel: collect data through 2026–27
The obligation is expected 2028–2029, which sounds far away until you try to get fibre percentages and country-of-origin documents out of a supply chain. That takes seasons, not weeks. Use 2026 and 2027 to build the dataset, and read the proposal when it lands late 2026 — our textile requirements guide tracks what is known so far.
Iron, steel and aluminium: watch the first act closely
Steel is expected to get the first ESPR delegated act (~2026, compliance ~2028), with aluminium around 2027. These are B2B categories, so the pressure will arrive through customer requirements as much as through the law — large buyers will want passport data from their suppliers early.
Tyres: a 2029 story
Act expected around 2027, obligation around 2029. Nothing to do yet beyond keeping technical documentation tidy.
Furniture and mattresses: watch 2028
The furniture act is expected in 2028 (obligation ~2029–2030) and mattresses around 2029. No reason to buy anything today — but material and supplier records you keep now become passport data later. Our furniture DPP page is the one to check back on.
Consumer electronics: voluntary territory
Not in the Working Plan; earliest realistic entry is the 2028 mid-term review, meaning 2030 or later. Smartphones and tablets do have ecodesign rules since June 2025 (repairability scores, seven-year spare parts, five-year OS updates under Regulation (EU) 2023/1670) — but no DPP. Any electronics passport today is a voluntary transparency play, which can still be worth it: see our electronics page for when it makes sense.
Footwear and cosmetics: no date, genuinely
Footwear is excluded pending a Commission study due at the end of 2027; cosmetics is a post-2030 discussion. If anyone tells you otherwise, ask them for the regulation number.
How to prepare, whatever your category
The delegated acts will set the fine print, but the core of every Digital Product Passport is already known: product identity with a unique identifier behind a QR code (a public page — no app, no login), materials and substances, durability and repairability information, recycled content, care and end-of-life guidance, and certifications. Data typically has to stay available for up to 10 years, with the exact period set per category.
Which means the preparation is the same everywhere:
- ✓Get product data into one structured place — a spreadsheet is fine to start. Scattered PDFs and supplier emails are the real enemy.
- ✓Make supplier data part of ordering. Ask for composition, origin and certificates with every purchase order, so the dataset builds itself.
- ✓Treat early passports as marketing, not compliance. A QR code that opens an honest product page is a transparency edge today and a head start later.
And check back here. When the textile proposal publishes, the steel act is adopted, or the Circular Economy Act appears, the table above will say so — with the same rule we always apply: real dates, clearly labelled, no invented urgency.