Digital Product Passport (DPP): a quiet revolution

People have been talking about "data culture" and "data-driven strategy" for at least ten years: how does a company ensure the quality of its data? How does it update and share it? And above all, how does it leverage it to evolve its business model in a timely manner? On this essential topic, the level of maturity remains very uneven from one organization to another. But in 2022, a triggering event occurred: a regulatory project that forces everyone to move forward: the Digital Product Passport (DPP).

Where does the DPP come from? As part of the Green Deal, the European Commission signed a regulation on the eco-design of sustainable products (ESPR). The future passport stems directly from this ESPR. The aim is to trace the life of a product from A to Z, including its recycling or reuse. Let's be clear: the DPP is a tool for the circular economy, even if we can already anticipate many other uses. It is scheduled to come into force gradually from 2027, with a timetable for each product family. The first products to be covered are electric batteries. These will be followed by textiles, construction materials, tires, and intermediate products such as steel. Only a few product categories will be exempt: food products, animal feed, and medical products.

Main challenge for the DPP: interoperability

What does this mean in practical terms? "It's a genuine information system (IS), whose main feature is that it's decentralized," explains Claire Fioretti, Director of Standards and Regulations for Connected Mobility at Michelin. "It's not about creating a new single database where everyone can dump their information. Here, we have the opposite scenario: the new IS will query each of the economic operators' databases."

This creates an initial challenge: cybersecurity. There is no question of the DPP's IT system hacking into manufacturers' databases. But the challenges don't stop there: there is also the issue of access rights (who has access to what?) and identifiers. Because the biggest innovation of the DPP is interoperability. In other words, players in the tire industry, such as Michelin, must agree with those who sell sporting goods, such as Decathlon, on a common structure. "Interoperability is necessary so that the Commission, which will be required to scan all types of products, can do so easily. The authorities will use the DPP to produce statistics on the circular economy. Hence the central identifier registry requested by the Commission," continues Claire Fioretti.

Laurent Tonnelier, founder of MobiLead in 2008 and committed to standardization, points out that the working groups will draw on as many existing voluntary standards as possible: there is no need to reinvent the wheel. "There are plenty of areas to explore. For example, we need to be able to identify a product individually—rather than by batch—in order to meet the circularity objective. This is very new for the industry." " For Claire Fioretti (Michelin), all this is indeed "a revolution": "As soon as you scratch beneath the surface, you discover dizzying prospects," she says. The number of participants in the commission bears witness to this, as in the working group on information systems: there are more than a hundred of us, with players such as Google, Huawei, Siemens, and Bosch.

QR Code, NFC, Rain RFID, 2D code: the issue of product labeling

"A product passport is first and foremost a passport, not a product sheet!" points out Laurent Tonnelier. It is a building block on which many services can be built. Some might see it as one way, among others, to combat counterfeiting. We could also be moving into a world of proof, as opposed to the current world of allegations. Imagine that tomorrow, the certifier could come and sign your label, or certify the origin of your products, thanks to the DPP. Once we have a common language, anything becomes possible. Standards will reveal the range of possibilities."

Another fundamental element is that each identified product must be connected to the Internet. It is effectively a "digital" passport. And the question of format is fueling heated debate. What will the "Data Carrier" look like, this famous QR code, NFC, Rain RFID, or 2D code that will be scanned to retrieve all the information? Among operators, this is "the" question, one with enormous impact. Because when it comes to product labeling, we're not starting from scratch. Many have already invested, sometimes heavily, in sophisticated devices that facilitate, for example, checkout. They have little desire to redo all this work, and yet the formats that are ultimately chosen must allow everyone to comply with the regulations.

"We must be careful not to exclude microbusinesses and SMEs," Laurent Tonnelier continues. "And whatever formats are chosen, there is another issue to resolve: what information to include. We can't fit thousands of characters on there. Nor can we put an 8 cm wide QR code on a lipstick. We need to think ahead, to choose the right text to print, what to code locally, and what to put online on a remote site. We also need to think about the longevity of the information if the company ever disappears. As we can see, the subject is akin to climbing Everest. But once everything has been stabilized (standardized!), we can expect the DPP to give rise to dozens of business uses.

Electronic invoicing, another major regulatory project

The requirement for French companies to issue and receive electronic invoices will be phased in starting September 1, 2026. As part of this, they must choose a partner dematerialization platform (PDP). SMEs and micro-enterprises will be affected as of September 1, 2027. But what data formats will be required? What about the invoice lifecycle? How can interoperability between PDPs be guaranteed? New standardization work is beginning at AFNOR to answer these questions, at the initiative of the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFIP) at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

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