Digital Product Passport for textiles
The Digital Product Passport for textiles is expected from 2029. Fibre origin, dyes, care and recyclability are expected in it.
Where Transpareo supports you
Once the act for textiles applies, a garment may only be placed on the market with a product passport. Transpareo is the DPP platform on which you create your textile passports, fill them with your suppliers and publish them. Each card leads to the section further down that describes the duty in detail.
Every garment needs a unique identifier and a QR code that leads to its passport. Transpareo creates both, with or without a GTIN, per model, batch or item.
The composition sits on the label today and will sit in the passport in machine-readable form. In Transpareo you enter it once, for the product and for each component.
Dyes and finishing treatments need evidence. In Transpareo you attach certificates such as OEKO-TEX or GOTS to the product as documents.
Fibre, yarn and dyehouse often sit several tiers away. With Transpareo Upstream your suppliers and their own suppliers enter the details themselves, and you review every value.
Care instructions and repair information belong in the passport. Transpareo brings a field for care instructions, and you add your own fields for spare parts and repair partners.
Soon you pay for collection and recycling in every country you sell in. You export the material and recycling data from Transpareo for those reports.
Anyone may read the composition, a dye recipe only authorised readers. Transpareo keeps the visibility on every single field.
A collection often goes to many countries. Transpareo translates care and material information into 40 languages, and you check the result before publication.
Transpareo checks every passport before publication and then signs it. Every reader verifies the signature with the Transpareo Time Machine.
What is coming for textile brands
The Digital Product Passport for textiles sits high on the EU’s list. At the same time, few industries hold so little data on their own products. Transpareo is the DPP software textile brands use to gather that data today.
What is still moving
The Ecodesign Regulation is a framework. Duties for a product group arrive only with a delegated act. On 16 April 2025 the Commission adopted its first working plan. In it, textiles and apparel rank first among the final products.
The Commission plans the textile act for the fourth quarter of 2027. It calls the date indicative itself. The act applies 18 months after its entry into force at the earliest.
The passport duty for a T-shirt realistically starts in 2029.
Only that act sets the data fields, the access tiers and the deadline. Until then it pays to gather the data any draft will ask for.
What already applies today
Two duties are already running. Since 1 January 2025 every member state collects textiles separately. Since 16 October 2025 the extended producer responsibility for textiles has been EU law. It covers textile-related products and footwear as well.
The member states transpose it into their law by 17 June 2027. Their schemes have to be in place by 17 April 2028. Then you register in every country you sell in and pay fees there.
The fibre composition labelling has applied for years too. The label stays, and the passport adds to it. All three duties need the same product data as the coming passport. In Transpareo you maintain that data once.
What this page covers
This page is your reference work on the Digital Product Passport for textiles. It shows the timeline, the roles with their duties and the data a textile passport will carry. Then come the official sources, a sample spreadsheet and a whitepaper with a model calculation. At the end are the questions textile brands ask us most often. A term underlined with dots shows the wording of the provision.
From the rules to the passport
The picture shows in grey the rules that reach a garment. In teal is the data you already hold for them. In blue you see the Transpareo product passport with its reading tiers.
The three biggest hurdles in practice
- Depth of the supply chain: a garment passes through four to seven production stages, often in different countries. Most brands know their chain as far as the sewing factory. Fibre, spinning, weaving and dyeing data sits deeper. It arrives through data clauses in purchasing contracts, and those renew slowly. In Transpareo a supplier request also reaches your suppliers’ own suppliers.
- Composition in percent: a garment is described in shares. Fibre shares, coatings and chemicals describe a material. Many product systems keep them only for the whole piece. In Transpareo you hold these details per component as well, such as shell fabric, lining and thread.
- A scope still moving: the labelling regulation, the waste rules and the coming act each draw their own boundary around “textile”. Until the act is published, your data model has to absorb a scope that is still moving. In Transpareo you create your own fields for it.
More on this: Textile industry: closing the data gaps in the supply chain and The DPP forces digitisation - and that is the real opportunity.
Regulatory timeline for textiles
The key dates of the rules that apply to textiles or are still to come, in order. Dates that hang on acts not yet adopted are marked as such.
- 18 July 2024Ecodesign Regulation in force
Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR) enters into force twenty days after publication. It replaces the Ecodesign Directive of 2009. It is a framework and sets no textile duty by itself. Every requirement arrives through a delegated act for a product group.
- 1 January 2025Separate textile collection everywhere
Every member state collects textiles separately from this day, alongside paper, metal, plastic and glass. The Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/851, requires it. The collection data of these years shapes the later recycling requirements.
- 16 April 2025Textiles named first priority
The Commission adopts its first Ecodesign for Sustainable Products and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025-2030. Textiles and apparel rank first among the final products. The Ecodesign Regulation had already asked for that. The plan schedules the Commission’s work and creates no duties.
- 16 October 2025Producer responsibility for textiles
Directive (EU) 2025/1892 enters into force. It gives textile, textile-related and footwear products their own extended producer responsibility. Whoever makes such a product available in a country for the first time pays for its collection and treatment.
- 20 July 2026EU DPP register operational
The Commission puts the central registry for product passports into operation, one day after the legal deadline. Textile passports are registered there once their act applies. The registry has offered a test environment since the launch.
- 17 June 2027Member states transpose the waste rules
By this day the member states transpose Directive (EU) 2025/1892 into national law. Then each country’s fees, reporting duties and eco-modulation become visible. They will differ from country to country.
- Q4 2027Delegated act for textiles expected
The Commission plans the delegated act for textiles and apparel for the fourth quarter of 2027. It calls the date indicative itself. No act setting ecodesign or passport requirements for textiles has been adopted so far.
- 17 April 2028EPR schemes in place
The national extended producer responsibility schemes for textiles have to be in place. Registration, fees and reporting start by now at the latest. They do not depend on the product passport.
- After the actPassport duty for textiles
A delegated act applies 18 months after its entry into force at the earliest. That is why 2029 is the earliest realistic year. The date, the data fields and the access tiers are all for that act to set.
Who is affected?
Duties for textiles: what falls on each economic operator on the way to the market.
Creates the passport before the garment is placed on the market. Assigns the unique product identifier. The information in the passport has to be accurate, complete and up to date. Whoever has production made to their own design and sells under their own name is the manufacturer too. No sewing machine of one’s own is needed for that.
Whoever brings textiles into the EU from a third country places them on the market and carries the passport duty. If the supplier delivers no passport, the importer creates it. That takes fibre, finishing and origin data. The importer settles that data in the purchasing contract. With a supplier request in Transpareo, the supplier enters it directly.
Checks before selling that the product carries its labelling and its data carrier. Keeps the passport reachable and maintains no passport data of its own. The new Union Customs Code arrives on 21 September 2027. When a consumer buys online from outside the EU, the seller or the marketplace is then the importer. That depends on the arrangement between the two. This importer makes sure the goods meet the product rules customs apply.
Whoever makes textile, textile-related or footwear products available in a country for the first time carries the extended producer responsibility there. That duty stands beside the passport. It comes with its own registration, its own fees and its own reporting.
What goes in the DPP for textiles?
Data fields for textiles: the key ones the relevant EU regulation requires.
This means the shares per fibre type, blends and the origin of the main component. The label carries only the permitted fibre names. The passport carries the same composition in a form a machine can read.
This covers dyes, finishing treatments and chemicals that fall under the REACH chemicals regulation. They are recorded per component, for shell fabric, lining and thread separately. Certificates such as OEKO-TEX or GOTS show where a value comes from.
This covers care symbols, spare parts such as buttons and zips, repair partners and the expected lifespan. The working plan names repairability as an improvement point for textiles. So expect a required field.
This covers the collection classes of the separate textile collection and the suitability for mechanical or chemical recycling. The disruptors decide it, such as elastane, coatings and mixed-fibre seams. Recyclers get access to the passport, within their rights.
Checklist for textiles
The EU has not yet published which data points a product passport for textiles has to carry: the act that fixes them is pending. As soon as it is public, a checklist for Textiles & Fashion appears here, as a page and as a PDF, the way the battery checklists follow the regulation text today. Until then, the required data above and the official documents below are the reliable guide.
Downloads
Every file for textiles, free and without an account: what each one holds and whom it is for is written on its card.
Sample row for textiles, filled in and with every column the import expects.
18 columns, sample values included
What a product passport costs a fashion brand and what it returns, before the obligation takes effect. With a disclosed model calculation, a data map, a phase model and a 90-day plan. By Günter Reichelt, textile engineer and President of the Board of Directors.
The key findings on four pages, for anyone who wants the figures and the recommendations first.
The model calculation as a spreadsheet. Replace the assumptions with your own figures and see the cost saving, the payback and the marketing effect at once.
Transpareo for textiles
Transpareo is the DPP software for textile brands and their suppliers. The textile template brings fields for the fibre composition label, care instructions, recycling instructions and chemical compliance evidence. You add further fields yourself as soon as the act names them. Each field has its own visibility.
Data comes in through the web interface, by Excel import or through the API. Suppliers enter their details themselves through a request, and you review every value. The sample spreadsheet above shows the columns a textile passport carries.
Before publication Transpareo checks every passport. Every publication is a signed version, and earlier versions stay retrievable. Whoever reads the passport checks the signature with the Transpareo Time Machine in their own browser. Care and material information appears in 40 languages, and you check the translation. You export your data at any time as JSON-LD, CSV, Excel spreadsheet or SQL.
Frequently asked questions about the DPP for textiles
When exactly does the DPP become mandatory for textiles?
No date is fixed yet. The duty arrives with the delegated act for textiles and apparel. The Commission plans it for the fourth quarter of 2027 and calls that indicative itself. The act applies 18 months after its entry into force at the earliest. That is why 2029 is the earliest realistic year. Anyone naming a firm month today is guessing. So plan for the data. In Transpareo you can create your textile passports today.
Does the passport duty apply to importers too?
Yes. The duty attaches to placing on the market. Whoever brings a garment into the EU from a third country places it on the market. That importer makes sure the passport exists and is correct. Either your supplier delivers the data, or you collect it yourself. Both need a clause in the purchasing contract. Negotiating such clauses often takes longer than the wait for the act. With a supplier request in Transpareo your supplier enters the data, and you review every value.
What counts as a textile product here?
Several scopes overlap. The Textile Labelling Regulation defines textile products by their fibre content. The producer responsibility covers the textile, textile-related and footwear products listed in the annex of the Waste Framework Directive. That is why shoes and home textiles are in there. The act under the Ecodesign Regulation will draw its own boundary. Until it is published, nobody can say for certain whether a given accessory is in.
What is the difference between the DPP and the EPR obligation?
They are two duties with their own deadlines. With extended producer responsibility, EPR for short, you pay for the collection and treatment of your goods in a country. The national schemes have to be in place by 17 April 2028. With the product passport you publish data about the product itself. It arrives with the delegated act. Both need the same product data. In Transpareo you maintain that data once and export it for your reports.
Do I need a GTIN?
No. What is required is a persistent unique product identifier and a data carrier. The carrier sits on the product, its packaging or the accompanying documents. The regulation prescribes no particular numbering scheme. If you have a GTIN, Transpareo turns it into a GS1 Digital Link that other systems resolve too. Without one, Transpareo issues a unique identifier of its own. Either way the QR code leads to the passport. More on the choice in why GS1 Digital Link is the right standard.
Who sees which data in a textile passport?
The access tiers for textiles are for the act to set. The principle already stands in the Ecodesign Regulation. Some information is public. Some is reserved for repairers and recyclers, some for authorities. Each actor gets access according to its access rights. So plan visibility from the start. In Transpareo it is a property of every single field. If the act changes a tier, you change a setting.
What if I only start when the act is published?
Then the supply chain gets tight. A garment passes through four to seven production stages, often in different countries. Most brands have reliable data only as far as the sewing factory. Fibre origin, dye chemistry and recycled shares sit two or three tiers deeper. They arrive through contract clauses, and those renew on their own cycle. Brands that wait for the act renegotiate under time pressure. Once the data is at hand, you publish the passport in Transpareo in a few minutes.
Do the care label and the passport say the same thing?
They overlap. The fibre composition label stays mandatory and stays on the product. The passport adds machine-readable detail the label has no room for. That includes origin and finishing per component. The working plan says the information requirements will be designed in synergy with the labelling regulation. That regulation is under review itself. So expect one data source for both. In Transpareo the composition sits once on the product and appears in the passport from there.
How long does a textile passport have to stay available?
The act sets the period. It matches at least the expected lifetime of the product. The Ecodesign Regulation already settles the hard part. The passport stays available even after an insolvency. That duty outlives any contract with a service provider. So ask every provider what happens to your passports after a cancellation. With Transpareo, published passports stay reachable at a permanent address. Once they are registered in the EU registry, Transpareo Vault archives them for ten years. Our provider checklist names more questions worth asking.
What does non-compliance cost?
The member states set the penalties. They have to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Market surveillance can also order a product withdrawn. In fashion the withdrawal is usually the expensive part. A season is short. A collection stopped at the border misses its selling window entirely. The producer responsibility side adds national fines for unregistered producers.
Official documents
Legal sources for textiles to read for yourself: what each document is and when you need it.
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR)The framework regulation. It governs the product passport, its unique identifiers and the EU registry. A delegated act applies as a rule at least 18 months after its entry into force. Read it once, then only the textile act.
- Ecodesign for Sustainable Products and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2025-2030The Commission communication of 16 April 2025. It puts textiles and apparel at the top of the priorities and gives 2027 as the indicative year for their act. This is where you see what the Commission is working on. Only the act will bind.
- Commission page on the DPP for textiles and apparelThe Commission’s status page for the textile act, with the planned adoption quarter and the note that it may move. A change of date shows up here first.
- Directive (EU) 2025/1892 amending the Waste Framework DirectiveIntroduces extended producer responsibility for textiles, textile-related products and footwear. Read it when you plan registration and fees. The national schemes are due by 17 April 2028.
- Directive 2008/98/EC on wasteThe Waste Framework Directive itself. It has required separate collection of textiles since 1 January 2025. The 2025 amendment builds on this rule.
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre namesThe labelling rules that already apply today. You may use only the fibre names it lists. The working plan says the ESPR information requirements will be designed in synergy with this regulation, which is under review.
- DPP page of the European CommissionThe general roadmap for the product passport across all product groups, with the state of the registry and the delegated acts. Here you see where textiles sit next to batteries and construction products.
Further reading on our blog
How fashion brands close their data gaps at the weaver and the spinner. The ESPR duties for textiles are expected from 2029.
From 18 February 2027 e-bike and vehicle batteries and industrial batteries above 2 kWh need a passport. What battery manufacturers know, and what the implementing act leaves open.
For most companies the first hurdle is product data spread across PDFs, emails and a dozen spreadsheets. Sorting it out is where the opportunity lies.
GS1 Digital Link is an international standard for the QR code on a product passport. What it means for interoperability.
Ready for your textile passports?
Set up your passports for textiles today. By the time the obligation takes effect, you have long been up and running.