regulations

DPP Beyond ESPR: Forced Labour Guidelines and Public Procurement

Two Commission guidance texts from late August 2026 mention the DPP: forced labour investigations and NZIA procurement. What they say, and what they do not.

9/6/2026 · 7 min read · InfoDPP

What this is, and what it is not: the two documents discussed below are Commission guidance notices published in the C series of the Official Journal. They explain how existing regulations should be applied. They do not create a new DPP obligation, do not change any DPP deadline and do not add data fields to any passport. Their significance is different: for the first time, official Commission guidance outside the ESPR and battery track treats the Digital Product Passport as an identification and evidence tool.

Two Guidance Texts in One Week

Between 31 August and 3 September 2026, two Commission guidance texts that have nothing to do with ecodesign on their face appeared in the Official Journal. One concerns the ban on products made with forced labour. The other concerns public procurement of net-zero technologies. Both mention the Digital Product Passport, and both do so in the same role: as a way to identify a product and to reach verifiable data about it.

A third, smaller signal arrived in the same week. On 28 August 2026 the Commission registered a planned implementing regulation on green public procurement criteria for apparel textiles, the first act announced under ESPR Article 65. Taken together, the three items show the DPP moving from a product-information duty into the toolkits of investigators and public buyers.

1. The Forced Labour Regulation Guidelines

Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 prohibits placing on the EU market, making available and exporting products made with forced labour. It applies from 14 December 2027. The Commission and national competent authorities will run investigations; customs authorities will enforce decisions at the border. The Commission adopted its guidelines on applying the regulation on 26 June 2026 (Commission Notice C(2026) 4386, published on its portal on 30 June) and published them in the Official Journal on 3 September 2026 (OJ C/2026/4637).

The guidelines contain a practical section on the information an investigating authority may gather or request. Section 4.7.3.1, on identification of the product, lists the usual identifiers: HS and CN codes, type, reference, model, batch or serial number on the product, its packaging or accompanying documents. The same list then adds the unique identifier of the digital product passport. Around it sit product traceability evidence such as chain-of-custody certificates and raw-material traceability data, documentation linking the finished product to its raw-material source, and bills of materials.

Why this matters

The DPP identifier becomes an official reference point. Where a product carries a passport, its unique product identifier is now explicitly among the data an authority may use to pin down which product an allegation concerns.
Traceability data in a passport becomes usable evidence. Where the applicable product rule requires origin, supplier or material data in the DPP, that structured record can support a company’s answer to an information request. Where it does not, the DPP proves nothing about forced labour.
The direction of travel is consistent. The customs chapter of the ESPR, the March 2026 answer to Parliament on customs enforcement and now the forced labour guidelines all treat the passport identifier as the reference point for cross-checking a product.

What the guidelines do not do is equally important. They do not require a DPP for products that have no passport obligation, and they do not make a passport a certificate of a clean supply chain. Forced labour due diligence remains a separate exercise, documented under the CSDDD and sector rules such as the Batteries Regulation.

2. The Net-Zero Industry Act Guidance on Article 25

Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1735, the Net-Zero Industry Act, requires contracting authorities to apply resilience and sustainability criteria when they buy net-zero technologies such as batteries, solar panels, heat pumps and electrolysers. The resilience criterion depends on knowing where a final product and its main specific components come from. On 31 August 2026 the Commission published guidance on how that proof of origin should work (Communication, OJ C/2026/4623).

The guidance first lists conventional documentary evidence: invoices, product identifiers and serial numbers, name plates, certificates of origin, bills of lading, bills of material, factory inspection certificates and manufacturing execution systems. It then states that contracting authorities should progressively rely on digital traceability systems that verify origin and supply chains in a secure and interoperable way, and that this could in the future also include Digital Product Passports.

How to read it

It is forward-looking, not operational. No tender can require a DPP today, because no net-zero product yet has a mandatory passport with origin data. Battery passports, the first candidates, apply from 18 February 2027.
It links the DPP to procurement scoring. Once a battery passport exists, its manufacturer, plant and material data are exactly the origin data this guidance describes. Public buyers will have a reason to ask for them.
One caveat when reading the text. In the battery example the guidance refers to Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 as the Batteries Regulation. Regulation 2024/1781 is the ESPR; the Batteries Regulation is Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. Do not copy that reference into your own documentation.

3. The Third Signal: GPP Criteria for Apparel Textiles

ESPR Article 65 allows the Commission to set mandatory green public procurement requirements for product groups covered by ecodesign delegated acts. On 28 August 2026 the Commission published a planned initiative on the Have Your Say portal: an implementing regulation on green public procurement criteria for sustainable and circular apparel textiles, led by DG Environment, with a draft still to be published for feedback.

Two points stand out. It is the first Article 65 act to appear, so the procurement arm of the ESPR is now being built. And it concerns textiles, where the product delegated act itself is still indicated for Q4 2027. The criteria that public buyers will apply to clothing will draw on the same durability, composition and traceability data that the textile DPP is expected to carry.

What This Does and Does Not Mean

No new DPP obligation, no new deadline and no new data field comes out of these three documents.
Guidance notices are not law. They bind the Commission’s own practice and steer national authorities, but they can be revised.
The forced labour guidelines apply to all products, passport or not. The DPP identifier is one identification route among several.
Procurement references to the DPP become operational only when a product group actually has a mandatory passport.
For textiles, the GPP initiative is a planning signal. The draft act, its criteria and its timing are still to come.

What to Do Now

Treat the unique product identifier as the reference authorities will use. Where your product will carry a passport, make sure the identifier printed on the product, the packaging and the documents matches the one in the passport and, later, in the EU registry.
Keep origin and material data in structured form. Plant, supplier and material records that feed a passport are the same records an investigator or a public buyer will ask for.
Do not sell the passport as proof of clean sourcing. It can carry traceability data; it does not certify working conditions.
Check where public procurement touches your business. If you sell net-zero technologies or apparel to public buyers, follow the NZIA guidance and the Article 65 initiative alongside the product delegated acts.
Watch the forced labour timeline. Application starts on 14 December 2027, ten months after the battery passport becomes mandatory.

FAQ

Does the Forced Labour Regulation require a Digital Product Passport?

No. Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 applies to all products regardless of whether they carry a passport. The guidelines (adopted in June 2026, published in the Official Journal in September) only list the unique identifier of the DPP among the pieces of information that can identify a product in an investigation.

Can a public buyer already demand a DPP under the Net-Zero Industry Act?

Not in practice. The guidance says digital traceability systems could in the future include Digital Product Passports. Until a net-zero product has a mandatory passport with origin data, tenders rely on the documentary evidence the guidance lists.

What is ESPR Article 65?

It empowers the Commission to set mandatory green public procurement requirements for products covered by ESPR delegated acts. The planned implementing regulation for apparel textiles, announced on 28 August 2026, is the first act under this article.

Official Sources

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