DPP-as-a-service: why digital product passports need a distribution platform

Every brand facing the Digital Product Passport eventually hits the same wall: issuing a passport is one thing, but making it findable, verifiable and exchangeable across every partner, marketplace and border is another. That is an infrastructure problem — and it is why DPP-as-a-service exists.

The integration problem nobody budgets for

Imagine thousands of manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and authorities each needing to read and trust each other’s passports. Wiring point-to-point integrations between all of them is combinatorial madness. A structured review of DPP use cases by Zhang and Seuring (2024) makes the pattern clear: value emerges only when passports are shared and coordinated across the supply chain, not when each actor keeps its own island of data.

The GDS analogy

Airlines solved an identical problem decades ago. Rather than every airline integrating with every travel agent, they connected through a shared Global Distribution System. Digital Product Passports need the same: a neutral layer where a passport can be issued once and resolved, verified and exchanged by anyone authorised — without bespoke integrations for every relationship.

What a DPP platform must actually do

• Issue passports with standards-based identity (GS1) and EPCIS 2.0 events.
• Resolve a scan to the correct, current passport across the item’s life.
• Distribute and exchange data between systems and actors.
• Export the passport as a self-describing, portable file so it survives outside the platform — in line with the Data Act.

Voulgaridis and colleagues (2024) frame the DPP as the connective tissue of a digital circular economy, emphasising exactly this technological, interoperable backbone rather than a standalone database.

Build versus buy

You can build passport plumbing in-house, but you will re-solve identity, event modelling, resolution, versioning and portability — then maintain it as standards evolve. A distribution layer lets you focus on your product data while the interoperability is handled on open standards, so a passport issued for one channel is readable by all.

Our approach — honest about the stage

GovGDS is building this distribution layer. It is proven today in an operating jewellery demonstrator that issues GS1 EPCIS 2.0 events and portable, self-describing passport files (XML with schema, plus a PDF with the XML embedded). We are transparent about the stage: profiles for textiles and electronics are designed but on our roadmap, and large-scale third-party deployments are ahead of us. What is real today is the standards-based core — and that is the hard part.

Frequently asked questions

What does DPP-as-a-service mean?

Consuming passport issuance, resolution and distribution as a managed service on open standards, instead of building and maintaining that infrastructure yourself.

Will a platform lock me in?

It should do the opposite. The test is portability: a credible platform lets you export the full passport as a standard file that others can read without it. That is a core GovGDS design principle.

How is this different from a QR-code generator?

A QR generator makes a link. A DPP platform governs the data behind every link — identity, events, resolution and exchange — across the product’s whole life and many actors.

References

• Zhang, A., & Seuring, S. (2024). Digital product passport for sustainable and circular supply chain management: a structured review of use cases. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1080/13675567.2024.2374256
• Voulgaridis, K., Lagkas, T., Angelopoulos, C. M., Boulogeorgos, A.-A. A., Argyriou, V., & Sarigiannidis, P. (2024). Digital product passports as enablers of digital circular economy: a framework based on technological perspective. Telecommunication Systems, 85, 699–715. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-024-01104-x

Related reading: What is a Digital Product Passport? · GS1 EPCIS 2.0 explained · The EU Data Act & portability