An ESPR-ready Digital Product Passport, built on the active technical specifications (W3C CE‑DPP, ISO/IEC 15459, EPCIS) and generated automatically at every logistics event, no separate project. Platform from 119 EUR per month, passports billed by volume.
A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a structured record attached to a physical product. It carries lifecycle, traceability, custody and compliance data, readable by three distinct audiences: the consumer, the retailer, the regulator. Each audience receives a different access level to the same underlying record.
The European Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) entered into force on 18 July 2024. It sets a framework. The actual obligation to issue a Digital Product Passport is set sector by sector through delegated acts. Textiles comes first, expected around mid-2027. Electronics, furniture, mattresses and several other categories follow in 2028 and beyond.
It is cheaper to install DPP infrastructure while it is still optional than to scramble in the quarter before a sanction. A brand that serialises today amortises the cost over 12 to 18 months and arrives ready on day one.
A more detailed breakdown of the regulatory timeline lives on the ESPR compliance page.
The data needed for a Digital Product Passport already exists inside your logistics: shipment number, carrier, status, transit events, item identifiers, returns. Rather than asking your team to re-enter that data into a separate DPP tool, the platform builds the passport in the background, from the logistics events it already observes.
Not every brand approaches the DPP at the same pace. The passport grows with your plan, so you start where you are and advance as the regulation tightens.
The European Digital Product Passport is not a proprietary format. It rests on specifications published by open bodies, which Next Horizon implements directly.
Today an item carries several codes that do not talk to each other: a barcode for the till, an internal reference for the warehouse, sometimes a promo sticker on top. Under ESPR it will also need a data carrier that leads to the Digital Product Passport. A brand that adds one more label for each new requirement ends up with an unreadable item and a slower supply chain.
Next Horizon starts from the opposite end: one data carrier per item, a QR code paired with an RFID tag, tied to the item's unique identifier (an SGTIN). That same code serves everyone. The customer scans it and lands on the public passport page. The warehouse reads the RFID chip to locate and count stock. On return, the scan opens the item's real record and releases the refund. It is the same identifier used for shipping and delivery, not a number anyone re-keys.
The EU packaging regulation (PPWR) also asks for sorting and composition information to be readable on the pack. The same principle applies: the packaging carries its own marking, linked to the brand and to the item inside, without inventing a separate system. The customer knows how to sort it, the authority can find the declared composition.
A jacket comes back to the store with no receipt. The assistant scans the QR sewn inside: the item shows up with its purchase date, its sales channel and its return status. The refund goes out without anyone hunting for the order by hand, and the jacket is routed back to the right stock.
Counterfeiting no longer just copies the logo: it copies the label and the QR code too. A printed code that only opens a nice page proves nothing, because anyone can photocopy it. What cannot be copied is the item's history: where it was made, which warehouse it passed through, who it was delivered to and when. That history is exactly what the platform already records for delivery and returns.
Each item carries a unique identifier (an SGTIN) tied to its passport. The passport does not just say "this model exists": it carries the real events of that one specific unit, recorded against the EPCIS standard along its journey. A copy can mimic the look, but it cannot present the same verifiable record attached to the same identifier. On the Scale and Enterprise plans, authenticity also rests on W3C Verifiable Credentials, a signed format a third party can check without calling the brand.
A watch is resold on a second-hand marketplace. The buyer scans the passport and sees the same unit, delivered two years earlier to its first owner, with its warranty repair already on record. A counterfeit would carry none of those events: the scan would hit an unknown identifier, or one already tied to another unit.
For most brands, the link to the product is cut at delivery. What happens next, repair, resale, donation, disposal, is completely out of view. ESPR asks brands to document exactly that second life: durability, reparability, recyclability. The passport that carried the item to the customer's door is also the one that can carry what happens after.
Because the passport is attached to the item's unique identifier rather than to an order, it survives a change of owner. A resale transfers ownership without starting from scratch. A repair is written to the item's record, not to a separate after-sales file. At end of life, the record carries the declared composition, which helps the sorting centre route the item to the right stream. For the brand, it is a channel that stays open with the customer well after the first sale, and a proof of compliance ready the day an authority asks for it.
A batch is recalled for a defect on one specific run. Instead of a wide, costly recall, the brand targets only the affected items by their identifier, finds who they were delivered to and warns them directly. The same passport a customer uses to check authenticity is what keeps the recall down to what truly needs to come back.
ESPR entered into force in July 2024 as a framework. The actual obligation to issue a DPP is set sector by sector through delegated acts. Textiles, which opens the sequence, is expected around mid-2027. Electronics, furniture and several other categories follow in 2028 and beyond.
W3C CE‑DPP for the passport's semantic envelope, ISO/IEC 15459 for unique identifiers (SGTIN by default at item level), EPCIS for custody events. The Scale and Enterprise plans add W3C Verifiable Credentials.
Passports are included in every plan: Starter carries 350 item passports a month, Growth 1,400, Scale 3,600, plus batch passports. Past the allowance, extras are billed per passport. Enterprise volumes are quoted after a 30-minute scoping call.
No. The DPP is generated from logistics data the platform already observes: labels, transit events, returns. If you ship with Next Horizon, the passport builds itself in the background, no side project.
The ESPR obligation targets products sold in Europe, regardless of origin. The platform generates the passport whatever the country of origin. A non-EU brand that exports into Europe is in scope.
A 30-minute scoping call is enough to estimate your passport volume, your sectoral ESPR timeline, and the right plan to start with.