Six Standards, One Foundation
On June 1, 2026, CEN and CENELEC published the first six harmonized European standards for the Digital Product Passport (DPP) — the EN 18216 through EN 18223 series, developed by Technical Committee JTC 24. For the first time, this establishes a binding, cross-product framework that technically underpins interoperability and data consistency across manufacturers, supply chains, and regulatory authorities.
The timing is no coincidence: the ESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation) mandates the DPP as the central instrument for product transparency. For industrial batteries, the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 takes effect as early as February 18, 2027. The new standards provide the technical language in which that passport must speak.
On June 25, 2026, CEN and CENELEC held a public webinar explaining the content of the standards — a signal that the standardization bodies intend to actively support the implementation phase.
What EN 18216 through EN 18223 Cover
The six standards address five functional layers that together form the technical infrastructure of a DPP:
Data Exchange Protocols and Data Models
EN 18216 establishes the core architecture: how data is structured, referenced, and exchanged between systems. This includes semantic interoperability — the ability of different systems not just to transmit data points, but to interpret them correctly. Without this layer, every manufacturer would be forced to build proprietary interfaces, making cross-border data exchange practically impossible.
Unique Identifiers and Data Carriers
One of the most practically significant provisions concerns the link between a physical product and its digital record. In practice, this connection is made via a GS1 Digital Link — a standardized URI that encodes the GTIN and serial number and points to the associated DPP record. The standards specify which identifier formats are permitted and how data carriers (QR code, RFID, Data Matrix) must establish the machine-readable connection.
For manufacturers already using QR codes on their products, this is a direct fork in the road: static QR codes pointing to a fixed URL do not meet the requirements if there is no updatable record behind them.
Data Storage and Access Rights
The standards also govern where and how DPP data may be stored — decentrally with the manufacturer, with accredited service providers, or in hybrid models — and which access rights apply to different actors (consumers, authorities, repair shops, recyclers). This differentiation is regulatorily significant: not all data points are equally visible to all parties.
The Registry Question: Still Open, but Urgent
In parallel with the standards, the European Commission is working on a central registry through which all DPPs will be registered and made discoverable. Orgalim, the European industry association for technology, has set out clear requirements: the registry must support high-volume, automated registration processes and be protected against operational outages.
This is not an academic demand. An electric motor manufacturer producing tens of thousands of units per day cannot depend on manual registration processes. The standards create the technical language — but the Commission still needs to deliver the infrastructure in which that language operates.
For companies already working with bulk import processes for product data, this is a critical point: your own data management must be structured so that it can connect seamlessly to a future registry.
The Battery Passport as a Stress Test: Dynamic Data as the Core Challenge
The Battery Regulation is the first — and so far most demanding — use case for the DPP. It explicitly requires that certain data points remain updatable throughout the entire lifecycle of a battery, including State of Health (SoH) and State of Charge (SoC).
This is technically challenging: SoH and SoC change with every charge and discharge cycle. For batteries used in a second life — for example as stationary storage after service in an electric vehicle — up-to-date condition data is not only a regulatory requirement but also economically relevant. A recycler who doesn't know the actual residual value of a battery cannot make an informed purchasing decision.
The Minespider 2026 Implementation Report identifies two structural weaknesses running across the industry: data fragmentation along the supply chain and the absence of processes for dynamic data updates. If you populate your passport once at the point of placing the product on the market and never update it again, you are not fully meeting the requirements — and from February 18, 2027 onward, you risk serious compliance issues.
BatteryPass-Ready: Test Environment Live Since June 24, 2026
One day before the CEN/CENELEC webinar, on June 24, 2026, the BatteryPass-Ready consortium launched a public test environment for the Digital Battery Passport. Manufacturers and system integrators can use it to validate their implementations against real test datasets — an important step toward making productive use of the time between standard publication and mandatory application.
What Manufacturers Need to Do Now
The publication of these standards marks the transition from policy discussion to technical implementation. For companies, this creates a clear need for action in three areas:
1. Audit your data architecture Your existing product data management must be assessed for compatibility with the data models defined in EN 18216 et seq. Proprietary formats that are not built on standardized identifiers (GTIN, serial number) will not function within the DPP infrastructure.
2. Establish dynamic update processes Particularly for battery manufacturers — but increasingly for other regulated product categories as well — you need to define processes that enable continuous updating of lifecycle data. This applies to both the technical infrastructure (APIs, database architecture) and organizational workflows (who updates which data, and when?).
3. Define your identifier strategy The choice of data carrier and identifier format has long-term consequences. A GS1 Digital Link-compatible QR code pointing to an updatable record is today's most technically robust solution — and aligns with what the standards implicitly assume.
Assessment: Standards as a Necessary but Not Sufficient Condition
The publication of EN 18216 through EN 18223 is a significant milestone — but not a finish line. The standards create technical interoperability, but they do not resolve the organizational and economic challenges of sourcing data across complex supply chains. For companies with many suppliers, the question of how raw material and component data can be structured and reliably fed into the DPP remains an open problem.
The coming months will show how quickly industry translates the new standards into production systems — and whether the Commission can keep pace with the implementation timeline by completing the central registry.
