Resources

Glossary

47 · Canonical terms. Search to narrow, or scroll by letter.

Search terms

A

Applies-from date: The date on which a regulatory obligation becomes binding, typically later than the entry-into-force date of the instrument that creates it.
Attestation: A signed statement by an identified party about a product or a data point. In the DPP context, usually a W3C Verifiable Credential.
Authority layer: The DPP access layer restricted to market-surveillance, customs and other competent authorities. Contains data confidential to the public and restricted to professionals.

B

Batch-level DPP: A DPP that covers a defined production batch or lot, rather than a single unit or an entire product model.
Battery passport · Battery DPP: The sector-specific DPP for batteries under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, covering LMT, industrial and EV batteries above 2 kWh.

C

Carbon footprint (product-level): The greenhouse gas emissions attributable to a product over defined life-cycle stages, expressed in CO2-equivalent per functional unit.
Carrier · Data carrier: The physical element (QR, Data Matrix, NFC, RFID) that encodes a product identifier and links to the DPP record.
Catena-X: The automotive data space providing the reference infrastructure for the battery DPP and other automotive-supply-chain data exchanges.
CBAM: Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Imposes a carbon price on imports of specified carbon-intensive goods, with reporting obligations that overlap with DPP carbon data.
CE marking: Mandatory conformity marking for products placed on the EU market. Not itself a DPP, but referenced by many DPP data points.
CEN-CENELEC JTC 24: Joint Technical Committee producing the harmonised European standards for the DPP under the ESPR mandate.
Circular economy: An economic model that decouples growth from finite resource consumption by extending product lifetimes, reusing materials and designing out waste.
CIRPASS: EU-funded consortium producing the horizontal DPP reference framework and data model.
Content negotiation: HTTP mechanism by which a client and server agree on a representation (HTML, JSON-LD, …) of the same resource. Standard pattern for DPP resolvers.
CPR · Construction Products Regulation: Regulation (EU) 2024/3110, which introduces a dedicated DPP for construction products alongside the ESPR.
CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Entity-level sustainability disclosure; overlaps with the DPP on GHG and substances data but is distinct in scope.

D

Decentralized Identifier · DID: A W3C-standardised identifier scheme where the subject controls the keys, allowing verification without a central registry.
Delegated act: A binding legal act adopted by the Commission under authority delegated by the co-legislators. DPP obligations per product group are set by delegated act.
Digital Product Passport · DPP: A structured, machine-readable record of product data accessible via a data carrier, covering composition, origin, sustainability and end-of-life.
DoP · Declaration of Performance: Document under the Construction Products Regulation declaring a product's performance against essential characteristics. The digital DoP is integrated with the construction DPP.

E

Ecodesign: Design for environmental performance over the product life cycle. Historically governed by Directive 2009/125/EC, now by the ESPR.
EPD · Environmental Product Declaration: A verified, standardised (EN 15804, ISO 14025) statement of a product's environmental impact. Embedded in or referenced by the DPP for construction products.
ePREL: European Product Registry for Energy Labelling. Holds energy, durability and spare-parts data that the DPP federates rather than duplicates.
ESPR: Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU) 2024/1781. The framework that introduces the DPP across most physical goods.

F

Federated record: A record composed by referencing authoritative data held elsewhere, rather than by copying it into a single store.

G

GS1 Digital Link: ISO/IEC 18975 standard encoding GS1 identifiers as web URLs. The most common DPP resolution pattern for consumer goods.
GTIN: Global Trade Item Number. The GS1-standardised product identifier widely used in retail.

I

Identifier: A string that uniquely identifies a product model, batch or instance. Multiple schemes coexist (GTIN, URN, DID).
Instance-level DPP: A DPP bound to a single serialised unit rather than a model or batch.
Interoperability: The ability of DPP systems from different actors to exchange and correctly interpret data without bespoke integration.

J

JSON-LD: JSON for Linking Data. A JSON format that embeds a published context defining field semantics. CIRPASS uses JSON-LD.
JWT: JSON Web Token. Compact, signed data format used to encode Verifiable Credentials in many DPP stacks.

M

Market surveillance: The network of national authorities checking products placed on the EU market for conformity with EU law. Primary consumer of the authority DPP layer.
Model-level DPP: A DPP that covers a product model (SKU) rather than a batch or individual unit.

P

Professional layer: The DPP access layer for repairers, refurbishers and recyclers. Contains disassembly, spare-parts and substance data beyond the public layer.
Public layer: The DPP access layer available to everyone without authentication. Covers composition, origin, care and end-of-life.

Q

Quiescent data: Data that does not change over a product's lifetime (e.g., composition at manufacture). Contrast with in-life data that updates (e.g., ownership, state of health).

R

Reparability score: A standardised score rating how easily a product can be repaired. Incorporated into the DPP for electronics, appliances and (expected) furniture.
Resolver: A server that maps a product identifier to the current DPP record. A critical, long-lived system — URL changes break every product in circulation.

S

SCIP: Substances of Concern In articles as such or in complex objects (Products). ECHA database used as an authoritative source for substance-of-concern DPP fields.
Substances of concern: Chemical substances identified by REACH, CLP or other EU regimes as posing risks to human health or the environment. Must be disclosed in the DPP.

T

Trust list: A signed list of authorised issuers and callers, modelled on eIDAS trust lists. Emerging for cross-border DPP acceptance.

U

Unique battery identifier · UBI: The unique identifier required under the Battery Regulation for every battery in scope.
URN: Uniform Resource Name. A namespaced identifier scheme used where a retail-style GS1 allocation is inappropriate.

V

Verifiable Credential · VC: A W3C-standardised tamper-evident signed statement by an issuer about a subject. The trust primitive for DPP attestations.
Versioning: The practice of tracking and exposing successive revisions of a DPP so that prior states remain resolvable and auditable.

W

WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The W3C standard against which the EU Accessibility Act measures digital services. AA is the EU baseline.