Why you cannot read the six passport standards

You cannot read the six digital product passport standards because the texts are sold. One text costs between 190 and 370 euros on the distributor listings, and this site has bought none of them.

So you can find out that a standard exists and that it matters, but you cannot find out what it says without paying.

Here is what happens if you ignore that gap. A supplier describes a document that you cannot check. You then buy a service, or build a system, on the description alone.

The citation is public and the text is sold

Two documents matter here, and only one of them is free to read.

The European Commission cited the six standards in Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736. Anybody can open that Decision in the Official Journal.

The Decision gives each standard a number, a title and a date. It does not reproduce the text of any standard. Each standard is a separate document, and you buy each one. See Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736.

Citation gives a presumption of conformity, and the standard stays voluntary

A product built to a cited standard gets a presumption of conformity. An authority starts from the position that the product meets the legal requirement.

Citation adds no duty. A harmonised standard stays voluntary, and nobody must buy it. You may meet the same requirement another way, and then you show your own evidence.

You buy each of the six texts separately

The British Standards Institution lists all six standards in its catalogue. Distributors list them too. The price in the table above is the price of one document, and a full set is six documents.

CEN and CENELEC are two European standards bodies. They wrote the six standards through the committee CEN/CLC/JTC 24. The Commission asked for that work, and the Commission cited the result. Neither step puts a text in front of a reader who has not paid.

The numbering jumps from 18216 to 18219. There is no EN 18217 and no EN 18218, so never write the set as a range. A range names two documents that do not exist. A vendor document that writes one is a sign that nobody checked.

The official titles sit in which standards apply.

Standards New Zealand has not adopted them, so there is no local copy

Standards New Zealand has adopted none of these standards as a New Zealand standard. It ran a consultation on digital standards in 2025. That consultation included one European standard, and that standard covers accessibility.

So you cannot buy a New Zealand edition of a passport standard, which leaves you with the same paywall as a European manufacturer.

A title is not a scope statement

Warning: do not plan any work from a standard title. A title tells you the subject and nothing more.

The Decision holds the official title of each standard. A title names the subject of a document. It states no requirement.

Take EN 18220. Its title ends with the words "Data carriers". The title does not say which carriers the text permits. It does not say what the text asks of the QR code printed on the swing tag of a merino jumper. See EN 18220.

A webinar slide and a distributor page are not the standard either

Two kinds of description circulate, and this site treats both as unverified.

The scope summaries in circulation come from the slides of a CEN and CENELEC webinar. A slide from a webinar is not a normative text.

A distributor sells copies of a standard, and its web page describes what it sells. That page is promotional copy. Do not quote it as scope.

One example shows what the paywall costs a reader. A supplier may tell you which product identifier schemes a standard permits. That claim appears in commentary, and the standard that would settle it is paywalled. See identifier schemes.

This site gives the number and the title, and never a requirement

This site has not bought the six texts. So it keeps one editorial rule, on every page.

This site states:

• the number of each standard
• the official title, copied from the Decision
• the publication date of late May 2026
• the citation status of each standard

This site never states what a standard requires. It publishes no scope, no clause and no obligation from any of the six. The source register records the same limit.

Ask a supplier which requirement it meets, and how

A supplier can claim conformity with a document that you cannot check. The claim costs the supplier nothing, and you cannot test it by reading.

Ask four questions instead.

1. Which of the six standards does your product implement? Give the number.
2. Which legal requirement does it meet? Give the article number.
3. Where does your description of that standard come from? Name the source.
4. Has anybody in your company read the purchased text?

A supplier who has read the text can answer all four. A supplier who repeats a webinar slide cannot answer the third question or the fourth one.

Your duty comes from a delegated act, not from a standard

The standard describes one way to build a passport. It does not decide if your product needs one.

That decision sits in the delegated act for your product group. As at August 2026 the European Commission has adopted no delegated act for any group under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). See which products, and when.

One passport duty is real, and it comes from a different law. The battery regulation is Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. Its Article 77 applies from 18 February 2027. The duty 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

That duty comes from the regulation. It does not come from a European standard, and no cited standard creates it. See batteries.

No ecodesign rule makes you buy a text this year

A good reason to buy a standard is a duty that you must meet. Under the ecodesign regulation you hold no such duty today, because no delegated act covers any product group.

So a purchase this year buys a description of how to build a passport that no ecodesign rule requires. Wait until a rule covers your product group. Then decide if you, or your European importer, need the text.

If you export from New Zealand, read what this means for New Zealand exporters next.