DPP software: How to find the right tools for the Digital Product Passport

The digital product passport (DPP) will keep companies that manufacture in the EU or distribute their products there very busy in the coming months. With a DPP software solution, you can structure all product data and turn the challenge into a real competitive advantage. We’ll help you choose the right tool!

Rubina Brunst
6. September 2024
ESG

Dieser Artikel wurde am 31. March 2026 aktualisiert.

or many companies, the automated consolidation of data from the various product life cycles starts out as a compliance and sustainability topic: it is about transparently presenting the supply chain and the emissions caused.

As the “digital product passport” will already be introduced for certain products in 2025 (keyword “battery passport” ) and will be gradually extended to other product categories, now is the time to act and digitize the necessary processes with DPP software.

In this article, we explain how you can meet your legal obligations, create a real competitive advantage at the same time, and optimally structure the selection process for DPP software.

Which DPP software is right for you?

If you already know your way around the digital product passport, have heard about our free matching service, and want to start the tool selection process based on your criteria right away, here’s a shortcut.

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The basics: What is the Digital Product Passport?

Every phase in a product’s life cycle generates data that is relevant to sustainability and the environment. This data contains information on the substances and materials used in manufacturing, on spare parts, on disposal that is as professional as possible, and on whether the product might be repairable.

The mountain of information is initially unstructured and confusing. With the digital product passport and the right DPP software for you, you turn the data into a standardized data set.

For your value chain and supply chain this is a huge advantage: The digital product passport gives all stakeholders involved in the product the opportunity to work together to build a circular economy. At the same time, the passport is also the basis for information that your consumers and customers need to make sustainable purchasing decisions.

The idea for the digital product passport (DPP) comes from the European Union—more precisely, from an initiative of the European Green Deal together with the Circular Economy Action Plan.

The DPP becomes officially mandatory through the new Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) from July 2024. On the one hand, it is intended to support customers in making purchasing decisions. On the other hand, the digital product passport is intended to ensure that companies comply with the requirements of the ESPR.

Requirements: What do you need to be prepared for with the product passport?

To prepare in good time for the digital product passport, you should start as soon as possible with collecting the data and/or structuring the data sources from all product life cycles. This forms the basis for a whole range of fundamental challenges that lie ahead—here are a few examples:

Sustainable product design and sustainable manufacturing
Across all life cycles, fundamental decisions must be made regarding product design and the manufacturing of all product components. The updated Ecodesign Regulation serves as the basis for this.

Responsible procurement of required resources
Since the DPP collects information about your entire supply chain, all components of a product and the raw materials needed for its production must be easily traceable.

Strict compliance with regulations for chemical product components
The DPP must always provide up-to-date information analyses to ensure compliance with regulations for chemical substances. All data and reference values must be listed transparently.

Transparency in the CO2 footprint
This involves the transformation of generic data into real data on your CO2 footprint as well as scaling these values across your entire supply chain. Also crucial for the DPP is the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), which provides information about a product’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Development of new business models
Your value chain as well as your relationships with your customers must be reviewed and, if necessary, redefined.

Which products require a DPP?

The EU is setting a clear course toward sustainable product design with the updated Ecodesign Directive. The first work plan has been defined and will run from 2025 to 2030 – an interim assessment is planned for 2028.

The new decisions make it clear that sustainability is becoming mandatory. For most ESPR-relevant products, a DPP will be mandatory—unless an equivalent system already exists. In other words: No DPP, no access to the EU market.

This means that companies must be prepared to align their products with sustainability. It does not matter whether the goods are traded, developed, or imported. The DPP applies in any case.

But which products will be affected, and when? The European Commission has announced which initial product groups will come into focus. These are mainly products that have a particularly strong impact on the environment and resources.

Therefore, at the very top of the list are:

Iron and steel (from 2026)
Aluminium (from 2027)
Tyres (from 2027)
Textiles and clothing (from 2027)
Furniture (from 2028)
Mattresses (from 2029)

Energy-intensive products and ICT products (e.g. smartphones or laptops) are also affected by the DPP—though not directly as separate categories. Instead, so-called horizontal requirements apply here.

Two of these are already set:

Repairability, including a rating system (expected in 2027)

Recyclability and the share of recycled materials in electrical and electronic equipment (expected in 2029) to avoid waste

IMPORTANT!

The product list is a prioritisation. In the future, the ESPR directive is to be extended to all products sold in the EU. Conversely, this means that companies whose products are not listed will, sooner or later, also be obliged to introduce a DPP.

How to prepare for the Digital Product Passport

A lot of relevant product information is still being lost: during the manufacturing process, at the point of sale, during use, and during disposal or recycling. The following example from the textile sector shows which information is relevant for users:

Where is the product manufactured, and by whom?

How does it get to Germany?

What do I need to bear in mind when using it (e.g., when washing)?

How do I dispose of the garment?

The good thing is: these requirements are not new—the information simply needs to be consolidated, and data availability adapted to the upcoming norms and standards.

Preparing for the Digital Product Passport means making the information available in digital form and ensuring that it is valid for the specific product. So start today by structuring the data and collecting it centrally. To make this work as well as possible, start looking now for a suitable DPP tool that will help you manage the data. You can then use the stored information to create the required Digital Product Passport with little additional effort as soon as it is needed.

Using DPP software is not mandatory; however, it is a huge облегчение and helps you prepare as effectively as possible for upcoming requirements and deal with them efficiently. It also minimizes sources of error that can arise from manual creation.

DPP: A challenge and an opportunity at the same time

For companies, the DPP initially means additional effort: extensive data must be collected, maintained, and kept up to date across the entire product life cycle. The introduction brings complex requirements for processes and systems.

At the same time, the DPP opens up new opportunities, especially in the area of transparency and the circular economy (important here: the PPWR). Information on materials, chemical constituents, or spare parts will in future be centrally available—an important prerequisite for reuse, recycling, and repair.

In addition, the DPP can help companies better understand their product life cycles (building on this: all about software for LCA/life cycle assessment) and pursue sustainability goals on a more sound basis.

Getting an early start with the digital product passport not only creates long-term foundations, but can also offer strategic advantages in the short term:

Secure a competitive advantage: Digital Product Passports are currently still a unique selling point – but they will soon become mandatory. Those who start early position themselves as innovation leaders and gain a clear competitive edge.

Increase business value: DPPs offer far more than mere regulatory compliance: they strengthen your brand, simplify resale, and increase visibility along the entire customer journey.

Be ready for future requirements: For many products, the DPP will soon be mandatory. If your company has long development and production cycles, you should act now – so there is enough time for seamless integration. In addition, the DPP affects many areas of the business – from sustainability and IT to marketing. Those who start early can set up processes properly and avoid implementation issues later.

Promote sustainability: DPPs support recycling, reuse, and upcycling – and bring you closer to your long-term environmental goals.

Features: What is a DPP tool used for?

In principle, qualified DPP software must include the following features and functions:

Modules that establish interfaces to internal and external databases in order to consolidate information on products and their sustainability values,

a module that visually prepares these indicators,

the ability to generate digital codes from the collected data that provide the prepared sustainability information, e.g. as a QR code,

a feature that protects the generated codes against counterfeiting and other misuse.

Particularly important in DPP software is the ability to collect all relevant data in an organized and clear manner. Due to the many interfaces that the digital product passport brings together, a lot of information is stored and must be processed accordingly. A qualified DPP tool should therefore be able to work with the volumes of data streams and retrieve the stored information without any problems. Only in this way can it be ensured that participating companies as well as customers receive the information they need about a product.

DPP software costs: What budget should you plan for?

The costs of DPP software vary and depend on several factors. These include, among other things, the number of products/product groups, the scope of functions of the software solution, the complexity of your production processes and supply chains, and your company’s existing ESG tech stack.

It is therefore essential to thoroughly inform yourself about the range of services and the pricing structure of the respective provider before deciding on a particular software solution. On average, you should expect that basic solutions require an investment of around €5,000 per year—however, depending on what the DPP software is expected to do, the price range can also extend up to around €30,000 per year.

A careful analysis of your own requirements and a detailed cost-benefit assessment are therefore important in order to make the right choice and benefit from an efficient software solution in the long term.

DPP software comparison: How to find relevant providers

To implement the Digital Product Passport, choosing software that meets your requirements is crucial for the scalability of all processes. With the ESPR and the PCF, more and more providers are entering the market offering DPP tools, creating a high level of opacity in the selection process. But how do you find the right solution for your company without investing an unnecessary amount of time? We’ll help you!

The Matchilla team works intensively every day with a wide range of software solutions in the sustainability space. We carefully screen product passport tool providers and record hard and soft factors such as features, reporting standards, interfaces, consulting and industry expertise, and much more in our database.

You can now benefit from this market overview and the expertise gained from over 700 matchings (for SMEs and large corporations): gone are the days of time-consuming research, gone are the days of creating a longlist along with the resulting deep-dive analysis and correspondence, gone are the days of unnecessary resource expenditure! Through our matching, we identify for you—in a structured shortlist (we call it the Matchboard)—the three DPP software providers that best fit your company. Your investment is only a few minutes.

Our selection process is based on an efficient interplay of data, algorithms, and a solid portion of personal expertise. No Matchboard is released without one of our experts adding their own input.

This comparison of DPP tool providers is non-binding, free of charge, and anonymous vis-à-vis the providers.

Try it/us without obligation: We’re looking forward to the matching!

Personalized DPP software matching – free of charge and without obligation

ESG and DPP expert

Rubina Brunst is the specialist for ESG matching at Matchilla. She supports companies in finding the right software solutions and regularly shares her experience from the many personal conversations in articles in the MatchZINE.

CSRD, Lieferketten, EUDR, ESPR, PPWR, CBAM & Co. sind Themen, die alle Unternehmen betreffen. Wir teilen im MatchZINE unser geballtes Wissen aus über 700 Matchings für Mittelständler und Konzerne.

DPP software: How to find the right tools for the Digital Product Passport

Which DPP software is right for you?

DPP software 2025

DPP software overview

The basics: What is the Digital Product Passport?

Requirements: What do you need to be prepared for with the product passport?

Which products require a DPP?

IMPORTANT!

How to prepare for the Digital Product Passport

DPP: A challenge and an opportunity at the same time

Features: What is a DPP tool used for?

DPP software costs: What budget should you plan for?

DPP software comparison: How to find relevant providers

Personalized DPP software matching – free of charge and without obligation

Match-Assistant: DPP-Software

Abschließende Fragen

Start des Anbieter-Matchings

ESG and DPP expert

CSRD, Lieferketten, EUDR, ESPR, PPWR, CBAM & Co. sind Themen, die alle Unternehmen betreffen. Wir teilen im MatchZINE unser geballtes Wissen aus über 700 Matchings für Mittelständler und Konzerne.

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