Digital Product Passport – EU sustainability and circularity regulation

The good arguments for the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), including the Digital Product Passport (DPP), are ‘queuing up’, as the ESPR can help reduce waste and pollution, harmonize requirements on performance and information, increase trust among business partners and end-users, promote a level playing field for businesses in Europe, and potentially position European industries in the international competition. The ESPR is a response to the coordination problems regarding circularity and the externality problems that individual industries encounter and create in their activities. From industry side, there are, however, also counter interests and arguments. The performance and information requirements can be seen as a burden on businesses, and especially the small and medium-sized enterprises have expressed concerns to that effect. The paper discusses the drivers and barriers for the implementation of the information requirements of the Digital Product Passport.