Choosing a DPP provider is hard, because a lot is at stake. You are legally responsible for your passports. For a battery, for instance, the company that places it on the market is liable for the data in the passport: it ensures that the data is accurate, complete and up to date, even when a provider runs the passport. Your passports also have to stay reachable for a long time, as a rule for ten years.
So choose with care, as the old proverb advises: “Marry in haste, repent at leisure.” And on the internet, ten years is forever.
To help you vet any DPP provider thoroughly, we have published a checklist. We lay open how Transpareo itself measures up: our service catalogue answers the questions of a due diligence in detail, including where the answer is “not yet”.
The two work together: every criterion we meet links to the area of the service catalogue that answers it in detail. So for every question you can read the answer without asking us.
Why you check for yourself
There is no official certificate for DPP providers yet, because the Commission sets the rules for providers in a delegated act of its own and that act is still to come; until then, the check is up to you. What the harmonised standards ask of the platform is set out in our mapping of the DPP standards, standard by standard, and what the EU registry asks for in our analysis of the registry regulation.
Six questions for the first meeting
If you are choosing a DPP provider for the first time, these six questions are the place to start. The right-hand column gives our status, labelled as in the service catalogue, including where it reads “Roadmap”:
| Question for the provider | Why it matters | Transpareo today |
|---|---|---|
| Can anyone check that nobody has changed the passport afterwards? | Otherwise trust hangs on the provider | Included, no account with us needed |
| Do my passports stay reachable if I cancel? | The duty to keep them outlasts the contract | Included, ten years after the contract ends |
| Do printed codes stay valid if I change provider? | Products already sold carry the code for years | Included, with your own domain |
| Does the passport appear in the language of every country I sell in? | The country of sale sets the language | Included, 40 languages |
| Is there a back-up copy with an independent service provider? | The law requires one | Roadmap, today you choose that provider yourself |
| Does the provider register my passports with the EU registry? | Your passport must be entered there | Roadmap, the EU interface is still missing |
The checklist: 30 questions for any provider
Our checklist for choosing a DPP provider arranges 30 criteria in five parts: what the law strictly requires, what keeps operations running, which additional features help, what security and data protection call for, and which commercial questions remain, from support to price.
Transpareo meets 28 of them today. The two open ones concern the EU registry: the connection to its programming interface, whose specifications the Commission has not yet published, and registration on your behalf, whose rules are still missing. You take the checklist to your meetings as a print-ready comparison sheet, with the Transpareo column filled in and two columns free for other providers.
The service catalogue: our answers, “not yet” included
Our service catalogue for your due diligence answers 94 questions of the kind found in requests for information and tenders. 83 answers are public, and each one opens with the status of its feature. 75 read “Included”. The other eight state just as plainly where we offer something only on request, not at all or not yet. Four are on the roadmap: the back-up copy with an independent service provider, the connection to the EU registry, single sign-on and an audited accessibility level.
A catalogue in which every answer reads “Included” would have been easier to write. We would like you to hear a “not yet” from us, early enough for your decision.
Each answer has been checked on a check day against the code it rests on, and when that code changes, we check it again. Eleven answers on architecture, operations, performance figures, security and our plans remain confidential; they are in the full edition, which opens after the confidentiality agreement.
From the comparison sheet to the first passport
The most convincing answer a provider can give to any question is a passport it has already published. Every version of a Transpareo passport is signed, and every reader checks it in their own browser with the open-source Transpareo Time Machine, with no account with us.
Which data a battery passport must carry from February 2027 is set out in our overview of the mandatory data in the battery passport. Once the data is in, your passports are published within a few minutes.
Questions on this article
How do I vet a DPP provider while there is no certificate?
The rules for providers are for the Commission to set in a delegated act, where appropriate with a certification scheme, and that act has not been adopted yet. Until then you check for yourself: with a list of criteria every provider has to answer, and against passports it already publishes today. Our checklist puts 30 questions for this, and its comparison sheet has two empty columns for other providers.
How far can I trust the answers in the service catalogue?
Every answer opens with the status of its feature, from “Included” to “Not offered”, and has been checked against the code it rests on. When that code changes, we check the answer again, and the catalogue states the date of its check. What binds us is what your contract with us sets down; the catalogue shows you honestly beforehand what you are signing up for.
What can Transpareo not do yet?
Two of the 30 criteria are open, both on the EU registry, whose interface and rules are still pending. In the service catalogue, the back-up copy with an independent service provider, single sign-on and a confirmed accessibility level are on the roadmap as well.
What is in the full edition of the service catalogue?
All 94 answers, including the eleven confidential ones on architecture, operations, performance figures, security and our plans, as a spreadsheet and a PDF. It opens once you have accepted our confidentiality agreement, which you receive by email with a personal link.
