Product Information Management
New EU rules are about to put product transparency under the spotlight, and not every industry will have time on its side.
The Digital Product Passport (DPP), part of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), will require companies to share structured, traceable data on product origin, materials, environmental impact, and disposal. It's set to become mandatory from 2026.
But the rollout won't hit all sectors at once. Some will be first in line, and they're running out of time to prepare.
Is your industry one of them? Read on to find out.
What's the Digital Product Passport All About?
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) makes product information transparent and useful for everyone who touches it: regulators, retailers, consumers, and supply chain partners.
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Although the required information may differ, certain data points can be included across various product categories.
It’s a digital record that follows a product throughout its life, storing key data like where it came from, what it’s made of, how it was produced, and how it should be recycled or reused. Think of it like a digital ID card for every product, built to support smarter decisions, safer materials, and a cleaner, more circular economy. It must include machine-readable, interoperable, searchable, and standardised data, accessible via a physical data carrier like a QR code or RFID.
Product Information Management plays a central role in any Digital Product Passport solution, helping businesses build transparency into their daily operations. With Bluestone PIM, product data can be managed quickly and accurately, even as requirements grow.
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How to Create a Digital Product Passport
From 2026, the regulation will begin to apply to selected product groups, requiring companies to provide structured, detailed information about theproducts they place on the EU market.
Industries Most Affected — First in Line for Compliance
The EU has confirmed that the rollout will be phased by sector. Based on the current regulatory timeline, here's which industries will be affected first.
1. Iron and Steel
Iron and steel is the earliest-dated category in the whole plan, with a delegated act expected in 2026. Producers will need to report on emissions, energy use, and the use of secondary (recycled) material, feeding directly into the EU's broader climate and resource-efficiency goals for heavy industry.
2. Textiles and Footwear
Garments and shoes are among the first categories targeted by the DPP, expected in 2027. These sectors have long struggled with traceability: supply chains often span continents, involve multiple intermediaries, and rely on opaque sourcing. The DPP will introduce a standardised digital identity per product, making it easier to document material origins, production methods, repairability, and recyclability.
Companies will need to rethink how they collect, enrich, validate, and share this data, not just internally, but across partners and platforms. Some categories, like automotive textiles and home furnishings, are currently out of scope but may follow later.
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3. Electronics and ICT
Manufacturers of consumer electronics such as phones and computers will face stricter rules on repairability and recyclability. Rather than one single delegated act, this sector is covered through two horizontal ESPR requirements: repairability (targeted for 2027) and recycled content and recyclability of electrical and electronic equipment (targeted for 2029). DPP requirements will cover environmental data, energy use, hazardous materials, and detailed documentation for disassembly and disposal.
4. Batteries
The spotlight is particularly strong on batteries used in electric vehicles, light transport, and industrial systems, with the first mandatory battery DPPs expected from early 2027 under the separate EU Batteries Regulation. Producers must capture detailed metrics on carbon footprint and recycling pathways to meet circular economy goals.
5. Construction and Building Materials
Manufacturers of materials such as steel, aluminium, cement, and insulation products will eventually need to supply data on sourcing, emissions, composition, and end-of-life recovery. The Construction Products Regulation itself applies from January 2026, but no delegated act setting DPP requirements for construction products has been adopted yet. Once one is, DPP obligations follow roughly 18 months later, so businesses in this sector have some runway, but shouldn't mistake "not yet confirmed" for "not coming."
6. Furniture and Mattresses
These are two separate categories on two separate timelines: furniture is targeted for 2028, mattresses for 2029. Both are high-volume, material-intensive product groups expected to meet transparency requirements covering component origin, durability, repairability, and end-of-life guidance.
Manufacturers will need to document repair, reuse, refurbishment, and recyclability potential, which will require integrated data flows across the whole supply chain, from suppliers to sales channels. A well-structured product information system will be essential for managing this level of complexity.
7. Tyres
Tyres have been added to the ESPR priority list in response to concerns about microplastic emissions, wear-and-tear impacts, and low recycling rates, with a delegated act targeted for 2027. DPP for tyres will need to track product lifecycle details, from raw material sourcing to wear performance, recyclability, and disposal. Manufacturers will be expected to provide verifiable data on environmental impact and sustainability performance throughout the supply chain.
8. Energy-related Products
Energy-related products, such as heaters, boilers, heat pumps, and ventilation systems, sit on their own ESPR timeline (targeted across 2026 to 2029), separate from the Construction Products Regulation even though most of this equipment ends up installed in buildings. Manufacturers will need to provide data demonstrating improvements in energy efficiency, carbon emissions, and environmental impact over the entire lifecycle. These categories are key to the EU's energy and climate goals, and DPP will help verify performance claims, support greener procurement, and build trust across B2B and B2C markets.
9. What About Detergents, Paints, Lubricants, and Chemicals?
These four product groups were seriously considered for the EU's first ESPR working plan (published 16 April 2025) but didn't make the final cut. Chemicals ranked highly for both environmental impact and improvement potential, but the Commission judged it too complex a category to regulate yet: a scoping study, due by the end of 2025, will work out which specific chemicals should eventually get their own DPP rules. Detergents, paints, and lubricants were excluded for a simpler reason: lower impact and weaker public support relative to the sectors that did get selected.
None of this takes these sectors off the hook long-term. It means there's no confirmed delegated act or compliance date yet, and the working plan's mid-term review in 2028 could change that. Businesses here have more breathing room than the sectors above, but not permanently.
What’s Driving the Shift?
The DPP is part of a broader transformation. Climate change, resource scarcity, and supply chain complexity have made the case for sustainability hard to ignore. But regulation alone isn't the full picture.
Consumers now demand visibility. Retailers want trust in the brands they carry. Investors scrutinise environmental performance as closely as financial returns.
According to PwC's 2024 Voice of the Consumer Survey (20,000+ consumers across 31 countries), 85% say they're already feeling the effects of climate change, 46% are buying more sustainable products to reduce their impact, and 80% say they're willing to pay more for goods that are sustainably produced or sourced.
For many businesses, transparency will be the price of market access, and the Digital Product Passport is the mechanism. But managing this volume of product data effectively, without adding friction to day-to-day operations, requires a dedicated PIM system.
Bluestone PIM: From Product Data to Strategic Readiness
Meeting DPP requirements won't be a one-off project. It's not about creating one document per product, but building a dynamic, extensible product data infrastructure that keeps up as rules change.
Bluestone PIM is built for exactly this kind of shift. It gives teams one place to hold every product attribute a DPP needs, from environmental impact and materials to origin and compliance documents, structured for both internal use and regulatory reporting. Design, procurement, compliance, and sustainability teams can all work from the same data instead of chasing spreadsheets between departments.
Because Bluestone PIM runs on an open API and a modular architecture, it adapts as new DPP requirements arrive rather than needing a rebuild. Multi-market businesses can localise and syndicate that same data across languages and channels using AI Linguist and AI Enrich, and keep it consistent everywhere a DPP might need to appear: e-commerce, B2B platforms, marketplaces, and QR-linked packaging.
For fashion brands selling across Europe, retailers, manufacturers, or construction suppliers operating in these more complex ecosystems, Bluestone PIM turns DPP compliance into a capability rather than a cost.
What Comes Next?
The DPP starts as a regulatory requirement, but it doesn't end there. Industries already under pressure need a clear strategy and the right tools to get ahead of it. Bluestone PIM is the foundation that meets today's expectations and scales for tomorrow's.
Schedule a meeting with our experts to explore how Bluestone PIM can help you get DPP-ready.
Borgar Hestad
Chief Sustainability & Digital Trust Officer
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