prDS CWA 18186:2025

Guidelines to create a Digital Product Passport - the EU project CircThread experience

Scope

This document defines guidelines for setting up Digital Product Passports (DPPs) based on different DPP design options. The scope of the CWA is product agnostic, in that most of the content can apply to any type of product. However, there are specific aspects provided in terms of information exchanges that relate only to particular products, such as repair information. Noting also that the EU ESPR regulation applies to both intermediate and final products placed on the EU market, depending on the requirements as set in a particular delegated act for a product group.
The guidelines provide the context under which DPPs are emerging in the EU market, a description of potential information sharing use cases, and a decision guidance for deciding on a DPP variant to implement for a company, either directly or through a third-party service. The variations in DPP in this CWA refer to the difference in DPP design choices due to the options available as outlined in Clause 5, which can result in many DPP variants. The guidance is informed by and contrasted with the CircThread project delivery of a user ecosystem for dynamic product life cycle information management for a circular economy.
The overall goals of the CEN Workshop developed CWA are:
a) provide context and guidance for companies to setup DPPs for their products.
b) provide information for wider product life cycle economic actors, in describing DPP based exchange possibilities that provide information sharing benefits for these actors. To improve companies and wider life cycle economic actors’ ability to engage with each other in enhancing DPPs to unlock joint information sharing benefits.
This document is intended to be used first by a DPP designer, a new role necessary for companies that want to or are required legally to have a DPP for their products. Second, for economic actors that want to understand how DPPs can support their activities by enabling new information generation mechanisms and sharing for a circular economy. This document supports companies and economic actors in development of their digital product passport.