Hosting, Retention & the Registry
Where Is DPP Data Stored — and for How Long?
The EU's Digital Product Passport is deliberately decentralised. The passport data — materials, origin, substances, care, footprint — lives with the responsible economic operator or its DPP service provider, reachable through the QR data carrier on the product. What sits in Brussels is only a registry: under ESPR Article 13 it stores the unique identifiers, not the product data. Availability is long-horizon — think product lifetime plus ten years — with exact periods fixed by each delegated act.
Written by Nazrul Islam, Founder, DPPLive · Last updated: 16 July 2026
The Registry
Identifiers only, by design
Article 13's own words: the Commission's registry “stores in a secure manner at least the unique identifiers” — plus the commodity code for goods entering customs. Think land registry versus the house: the registry proves a passport exists and where to find it; it never holds your bill of materials.
ESPR Art. 13
The Passport
Hosted at the operator's side
The record itself is decentralised: hosted by the responsible operator or its service provider, connected “through a data carrier to a persistent unique product identifier” (Article 10), built on open standards, machine-readable and interoperable — so a scan resolves to live data, not a PDF in an inbox.
ESPR Art. 10
Access
Tiered, not public-everything
Article 11 lists who must be able to reach passport data — customers, importers, distributors, repairers, remanufacturers, recyclers, market surveillance and customs authorities among them — each seeing the tier relevant to their role. Consumers see care and composition; authorities see compliance depth.
ESPR Art. 11
Retention
Lifetime + 10 years, in practice
The Commission's DPP guidance frames availability as the product's useful life plus ten years; each delegated act fixes the binding period per product group. For garments that means outliving the garment itself — a hosting commitment, not a website feature.
Continuity
Built to survive providers
Open-standards design (Article 10) exists so passports can migrate between systems; delegated acts address backup expectations. Due-diligence question for any platform: can I export my complete passport archive, today, in a standard format? If not, keep looking.
Customs Link
The registry meets the border
From the moment the registry is operational, Article 15 requires the unique registration identifier to be provided to customs at release for free circulation — the registry lookup becomes part of the import flow, while the data stays at your provider.
Hosting & Retention FAQ
Quick Answers
Does the EU store my product data in its registry?
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No. Article 13 is explicit: the Commission's registry stores, in a secure manner, at least the unique identifiers — plus commodity codes for customs — not the passport's product data. The registry is a lookup layer that points to where each passport lives.
Who hosts the actual passport data?
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The economic operator responsible for the product — in practice usually its DPP service provider, which keeps the passport online, resolvable from the QR data carrier, backed up and updateable through the product's life.
How long must DPP data stay available?
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Plan for the product's lifetime plus ten years. The European Commission's DPP guidance frames availability in that order of magnitude, and each delegated act fixes the exact period per product group — the textile act is expected in 2027.
What happens if a DPP provider goes out of business?
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The framework anticipates it: passports must be built on open, interoperable standards (Article 10) precisely so records can migrate, and delegated acts set backup and continuity expectations. Contractually, insist on data portability and an exportable archive from any provider.
Keep Reading
Go Deeper
What goes live on 19 July 2026 — and what doesn't.
Authenticity, integrity and who checks what.
The data carrier that resolves to the hosted passport.
The full process, hosting included.
Sources & official references
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR) — full text on EUR-Lex — Article 10 (essential requirements), Article 11 (access), Article 13 (registry), Article 15 (customs)
- European Commission — Digital Product Passport — official FAQ (Dec 2025, PDF)
DPPLive’s Take
Hosting Is the Hidden Half of Compliance
Creating a passport is a project; keeping it resolvable for a decade is an operation. DPPLive runs that operation — persistent identifiers, live hosting, tiered access and an exportable archive that stays yours.