Digital Product Passports: How Products Become Digitally Identifiable

Before a product can carry a Digital Product Passport, it needs to be identifiable in a way that works beyond a single system.

Product information no longer sits alongside the product.
It needs to be directly connected to it, accessed from it, and used across contexts.

This does not only affect how data is managed, but how products are defined.

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Product identity as a reference point

Assigning an identifier is not sufficient. It needs to function as a stable reference across systems, use cases, and over time.

Information must remain linked to the same product as it is updated, extended, and used across different contexts.

This does not imply uniform access.
Regulatory authorities, supply chain partners, and consumers interact with product information under different conditions and levels of visibility.

What remains consistent is the reference point: the ability to link all relevant information back to the same product, without fragmentation or reinterpretation across systems.

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Existing identification systems

This requirement is not new.
It is already embedded in how products are identified and exchanged across industries.

Standards such as those developed by GS1 define globally unique identifiers that are shared across organizations. Renoon works in alignment with these standards as an official GS1 Italy Solution Partner.

Identification keys such as the GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), the GLN (Global Location Number), and EPCIS-based event data enable products, locations, and product-related events to be consistently referenced and shared across supply chains.

While identifiers like GTIN and GLN provide a stable reference for products, components, economic actors and facilities, frameworks such as EPCIS enable the capture and sharing of product lifecycle events, from production and logistics to repair or recall.

In this sense, products already have a “name”.
Not in a descriptive sense, but as a structured reference that allows them to exist across systems without being redefined.

This is what enables products to move across organizations while maintaining continuity, supporting processes from logistics to retail without fragmentation.

What is changing is not the existence of this “name”, but what it allows the product to do.

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From identification to access

Product identifiers have traditionally been used to recognize and reference products across systems.
Their role is now extending beyond that function.

Standards such as GS1 Digital Link enable identifiers to function as web-based addresses.
A product identifier can be expressed in a URL, linking directly to information associated with that product.

This changes how product information is accessed in practice.
The identifier becomes the point through which data is retrieved, rather than a reference used to locate it within separate systems.

This enables a shift from static datasets to information that can be updated, extended, and used across multiple applications, without redefining the product each time.

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Where identity meets the product

For this model to work, the identifier needs to be accessible from the product itself.

This is the role of data carriers.

Technologies such as QR codes, RFID, or NFC allow the identifier to be accessed directly from the physical product.
They act as the interface between the product and its digital information.

Within this structure, the connection between product and data becomes intrinsic.
The product itself becomes the point from which its information can be accessed.

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A new layer of definition

Digital Product Passports build on this structure.

They rely on a system where products can be identified, accessed through a data carrier, and connected to structured information across contexts.
Without this foundation, product-level data cannot be used in a consistent or scalable way.

What is emerging is not just a new requirement, but a different role for products within digital systems.

They no longer exist only as physical objects, but as points of access to information that can evolve, expand, and be used over time.

These systems are being defined across multiple regulatory and technical initiatives, from GS1 standards to EU implementation frameworks.
Understanding how they evolve requires continuous monitoring.

👉 Explore Renoon’s DPP Newstracker to stay aligned with the latest developments and understand how they apply to your products.

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