GS1 engages in cooperative efforts with governmental bodies, industry partners, policy makers and Member Organisations in anticipation of forthcoming legislation. These regulations necessitate the implementation of globally interoperable standards to meet the requirements of the GS1 community.

GS1 standards are here and ready to support the circular economy, addressing cross-sectorial and global needs like the Digital Product Passport (DPP) being developed in Europe. The circular economy model requires retaining product data through redesigning, remanufacturing, reuse, and recycling.

Under the framework of the EU Green Deal, the European Commission has adopted the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) in 2024. The overall aim of the regulation is to reduce the lifecycle environmental impacts of products by using smarter digital solutions. It also aims to enable the objectives of EU industrial policy such as boosting the demand for sustainable goods and supporting sustainable production. As an important instrument to achieve these ambitions, the regulation includes the concept of EU Digital Product Passport (EU DPP). The DPP is a mandatory data structure that will simplify digital access to product-specific information related to sustainability and circularity, enabling B2B, B2C and B2G data exchange. The DPP will be accessible via electronic means through the scan of an internationally standardised data carrier, enabling direct data accessibility. The data requirements regarding the products that consumers will have in their hands will be decided in EU delegated acts and per sector. The first DPPs will be fully operational and accessible through the EU prioritised products by February 2027.

The DPP Provisional Application standard aims to help GS1 standards users to prepare fulfilment of regulatory requirements regarding identification and data carrier as a means to access DPP data. See Section 2.1.X for the Application description.