GS1-aligned digital product passports, explained

What does "GS1-aligned" actually mean?

It means the passport is built on the same identification system your products already use. The barcode on almost every product in Europe encodes a GTIN, a Global Trade Item Number issued under GS1 rules. A GS1-aligned digital product passport reuses that GTIN as the passport's identity instead of inventing a new numbering scheme, and it uses GS1's related standards to identify companies and locations (the GLN) and to link the physical product to its digital record.

The practical consequence: your product master data, your logistics, and your DPP all speak the same language. A DPP built on proprietary identifiers has to be mapped back to your GTINs for the rest of your systems to use it. A GS1-aligned one does not.

What is GS1 Digital Link?

GS1 Digital Link is a web-enabled syntax, standardized as ISO/IEC 18975, that encodes a GTIN and related data into an ordinary URL.

Instead of a barcode that only says "I am product 07612345678900," the QR code on the product carries a link like https://id.example.com/01/07612345678900/21/12345, which identifies the product model, the batch, or even the individual item, and resolves to its passport.

Two properties make it the workhorse of DPP implementations. It is backward compatible: a warehouse scanner extracts the GTIN from the URL structure without needing an internet connection, so existing supply chain processes keep working. And it is consumer accessible: any smartphone camera opens the same QR code and lands on the product's information page.

Which GS1 identifiers does a DPP use?

The level you need depends on the regulation: the EU battery passport applies at individual battery level, while other product groups are expected to allow model or batch granularity.

Does the EU require GS1?

No. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation requires a persistent unique product identifier compliant with the ISO/IEC 15459 series, carried on the product by a data carrier; it names the QR code as an accepted carrier. GS1 is one of the issuing agencies under ISO/IEC 15459, but it is by far the dominant one: identifiers beginning with a digit are, by definition of that standard, GS1-issued. In practice, aligning with GS1 is the lowest-friction way to comply, because it is the system your trading partners, retailers, and scanners already understand.

What happens when someone scans the code?

The QR code resolves through a GS1-conformant resolver: a service that reads the Digital Link URL and redirects to the right destination, whether that is the passport, a repair manual, or a consumer page. The links are machine-discoverable (the linkset mechanism standardized as RFC 9264), so a regulator's system and a consumer's phone can each find the resource they need from the same code. Importantly, the domain in the URL is not part of the product's identity: if a data source moves or a company changes provider, the same identifier can resolve through another domain, which is what makes the identifier persistent over a product's life.

What should manufacturers do now?

The battery passport applies to every EV, LMT, and industrial battery above 2 kWh placed on the EU market from February 18, 2027, at individual battery level.

For everyone else, the sequencing is set by ESPR delegated acts and, for construction products, by the new CPR framework that has applied since January 8, 2026, with the passport requirement following. The preparation is the same regardless of date: get GTIN coverage and granularity right for your portfolio, decide where your passport data will live, and make sure your product data can be assembled per GTIN, because that is the axis every passport hangs on.

How Data Graphs fits

Data Graphs' Digital Product Passport solution turns the ERP, PLM, and spec-sheet data manufacturers already have into registry-ready passports. Solution Partner for GS1 Germany and GS1 Switzerland. The platform runs in production across 27 EU states, and GTIN and GS1 Digital Link are native to it, not an export format: passports are modeled on your GS1 identifiers from the start, so the record your scanner reads and the record your regulator reads are the same one.