The standards
Which standards apply to a digital product passport
The European Commission cited six European standards for digital product passports. All six stay voluntary.
Six European standards apply to a digital product passport. The European Commission cited all six in the Official Journal in July 2026. See why passports are in the news now.
None of the six is mandatory. A supplier who tells you that the law forces you to buy them, or to build to them, is wrong.
Two costs follow if you believe a claim like that. You pay for documents you do not need this year. You also quote standard numbers that do not exist.
The six standards, with the official titles
The titles below come from Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736. That Decision entered into force on 15 July 2026. The text sits in the Official Journal.
| Standard | Official title |
|---|---|
| EN 18216 | Digital product passport - Data exchange protocols |
| EN 18219 | Digital product passport - Unique identifiers |
| EN 18220 | Digital product passport - Data carriers |
| EN 18221 | Digital product passport - Data storage, archiving, and persistence |
| EN 18222 | Digital Product Passport - Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for product passport lifecycle management and searchability |
| EN 18223 | Digital Product Passport - System interoperability |
The capitalisation changes between the fourth row and the fifth row. That change is in the official text, not a mistake on this page.
Each standard has its own page on this site:
- EN 18216, data exchange protocols
- EN 18219, unique identifiers
- EN 18220, data carriers
- EN 18221, data storage, archiving, and persistence
- EN 18222, application programming interfaces for product passport lifecycle management and searchability
- EN 18223, system interoperability
There is no EN 18217 and no EN 18218
The numbers jump, and the gap is real. No passport standard sits between EN 18216 and EN 18219.
Some sources join the lowest number and the highest number with the word "to", and present the set as a range. That notation invents two documents. If you order by the range, you cannot tell which six documents to order.
Some sources interchange the titles of EN 18216 and EN 18219
Warning: some secondary sources give the identifiers title to EN 18216, and the data exchange title to EN 18219. EN 18216 is data exchange protocols, and EN 18219 is unique identifiers.
Check any title against the Decision. The table above holds the Decision's own wording.
CEN and CENELEC wrote them under mandate M/604
The European Commission asked CEN and CENELEC, the European standards bodies, to write these standards. The request is Standardisation Request M/604. An amendment, M/604_Amd1, followed.
CEN and CENELEC set up a joint technical committee for the work. It is CEN/CLC/JTC 24, and its secretariat is at DIN. The committee covers the digital product passport framework and system.
The committee produced eight European standards, and six of them are published.
| Step | Date and status |
|---|---|
| The six standards published | Late May 2026. The BSI catalogue gives 28 May 2026. |
| The Decision adopted | 14 July 2026 |
| The Decision published and in force | 15 July 2026, in force |
| The two further standards | Under approval. Not published, not cited. The Commission web page plans a decision in September 2026. |
Two more standards are still under approval
The two are prEN 18239 and prEN 18246. The formal vote closed on 16 July 2026. CEN and CENELEC still list both as under approval.
Neither is published. Neither is cited in the Official Journal. So neither gives a presumption of conformity today.
Commentary describes prEN 18239 as access rights and information security. It describes prEN 18246 as data authentication and integrity. Treat both descriptions as reported, not as confirmed.
Do not treat either draft as a requirement. A draft can change before publication.
Citation gives a presumption of conformity, not a duty
Citation in the Official Journal does not make a standard mandatory. It gives a product built to the standard a presumption of conformity.
A presumption of conformity is the easy route, not the only route. You may meet the legal requirement another way. You must then show your own evidence.
Four items set the limit of this presumption. Each one comes from the Decision, or from what the Decision leaves out. The ecodesign regulation is Regulation (EU) 2024/1781.
| Item | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| The legal basis of the Decision | Article 10(6) of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 on European standardisation |
| The presumption of conformity | Article 41(2) of the ecodesign regulation |
| The requirements the presumption covers | Articles 10 and 11 of the ecodesign regulation |
| The article that makes a passport a condition of market access | Article 9 of the ecodesign regulation, which the Decision does not mention |
Read the last two rows together. The presumption covers how a passport is built. It does not decide if your product needs one.
No product group must have a passport yet
As at August 2026, the European Commission has adopted no delegated act for any product group under the ecodesign regulation. A delegated act is the rule that makes a passport mandatory for one product group.
So the six standards describe how to build a passport that no ecodesign rule yet requires.
One passport duty is real, and it comes from a different law. The battery regulation is Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. Its Article 77 requires a passport from 18 February 2027, and it covers three categories:
- each light means of transport (LMT) battery, such as an e-bike battery
- each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kilowatt hours
- each electric vehicle battery
The page on batteries sets out that duty.
This site has not read the six texts
The full texts are paywalled. One standard costs between 190 and 370 EUR.
This site has not bought them. So this site states no normative content for any of the six. The table near the top of this page holds the official titles, and nothing more.
Two warnings follow from that.
The scope summaries in circulation come from a CEN and CENELEC webinar deck, not from the standards. A webinar slide is not a normative text.
A distributor page that describes a standard is promotional copy. Do not quote it as scope. The page on why the texts are paywalled covers the reason.
One example shows the cost of the paywall. This site does not know how many product identifier schemes EN 18219 permits, because nobody here has bought the text. If a supplier quotes a number, ask which clause of the purchased text states it. The page on identifier schemes sets out what is known.
The ecodesign regulation names ISO/IEC 15459, not GS1
A search of the full ecodesign regulation finds no mention of GS1 or of Digital Link. It does not name IEC 61406 or the digital object identifier (DOI). The QR code standard, ISO/IEC 18004, is absent as well.
Annex III of the regulation names the ISO/IEC 15459 series. The Annex lists parts 1 to 6 of that series. Article 10(1)(c) makes that an interim rule. It allows those standards, or equivalent European or international standards, until the references of harmonised standards are published.
The law does not force a GS1 Digital Link address into your QR code. That claim has no support in the text of the regulation. Ask any supplier who makes the claim to show you the article.
Standards New Zealand sells all six, and has adopted none
A New Zealand reader can buy any of the six without going offshore. Standards New Zealand lists them as resold British Standards Institution editions, and it has adopted none of them as a New Zealand standard.
The price is higher in New Zealand dollars than the euro listings suggest. See which standards and identifiers.
Do not buy a standard until a rule covers your product group
Warning: do not buy any of the six standards because a supplier says the law requires them. Check first if a rule covers your product group.
- Find out if a delegated act covers your product group. Today none does.
- If you sell batteries, work to 18 February 2027. The battery regulation sets that date, and it is in force.
- Ask a supplier which of the six documents its product implements, by number.
- Treat any scope claim about the six as unverified, unless the person quotes the purchased text.