The textile industry is among the first to enter the era of the mandatory digital product passport (DPP). The good news: the exact data fields are already known. The bad news: much of that data is scattered across the supplier chain, and pulling it together takes time. This article walks through what data you need to gather for the textile version of the product passport, where it comes from, and by when.
When is the textile DPP coming? The ESPR timeline
The DPP in the textile industry is not a stand-alone rule; it falls under the EU Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR, (EU) 2024/1781), which entered into force on 18 July 2024. The regulation sets the framework, but the specific requirements — including the mandatory content of the product passport — are laid down product group by product group in a separate delegated act.
The Commission's first working plan (COM(2025) 187 final, 16 April 2025) names six priorities, and textiles/apparel is one of the very first among finished products. The textile delegated act is indicatively planned for 2027: industry analyses expect a Commission proposal in late 2026, followed by formal adoption in 2027. Since the ESPR requires a transition period of at least 18 months for every delegated act (in practice often 18–24 months), a mandatory textile DPP will realistically become a condition for placing products on the market around 2028–2029.
| Milestone | Date | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ESPR enters into force | 18 Jul 2024 | The framework regulation is in force, but there is no textile requirement yet |
| Working plan adopted | 16 Apr 2025 | Textilees set as a top priority |
| Ban on destroying unsold textiles (large companies) | 19 Jul 2026 | Mandatory ALREADY — see below |
| Adoption of the textile delegated act | ~2027 (indicative) | This is where the mandatory DPP content is fixed |
| Textilee DPP becomes mandatory | ~2028–2029 (estimated) | Adoption + 18–24 month transition |
Important: these dates are indicative planning figures, not legally fixed deadlines. The mandatory date will in every case be set by the final delegated act, and some slippage relative to earlier estimates is already visible. We break down the full EU timetable in our ESPR/DPP deadlines article. If you are not yet comfortable with the basics, first read the What is a DPP guide.
What you already have to comply with in 2026: the ban on destroying unsold textiles
Many companies assume the ESPR obligations for textiles are still years away. That is a mistake. The ban on destroying unsold clothing, clothing accessories and footwear applies to large companies from 19 July 2026 — so it is already an obligation in force today, regardless of the fact that the delegated act setting out the DPP has not yet been adopted.
| Company size | Destruction ban | Disclosure obligation |
|---|---|---|
| Large company | mandatory from 19 Jul 2026 | annual disclosure from the first full financial year after entry into force; standardised format from ~February 2027 |
| Medium-sized enterprise | expected from 2030 | expected from 2030 |
| Small and micro enterprise | permanently exempt | permanently exempt |
The rule also comes with a transparency (disclosure) obligation. The annual reporting itself already applies to large companies from earlier on — from the first full financial year after the ESPR entered into force (18 Jul 2024); and a separate implementing act is planned to introduce, from around February 2027, a standardised format in which companies disclose annually how many unsold products they scrapped and why. Destruction is permitted only in narrow, justified cases — for example on safety grounds or because of damage — in line with the derogations set out in the delegated act. What used to be waste must now be handled through resale, donation, remanufacturing or recycling. In practice this means your stock data and your product composition data must already be in order in 2026 — the very same data that will later form the backbone of the textile digital product passport.
Which data fields do you need to collect?
On 13 May 2026 the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the first complete specification of the textile-apparel DPP content: around 49 data points, organised roughly into four blocks — product identification, manufacturer and operator identification, product information, and conformity documentation (EU declaration of conformity/certificate or self-declaration, together with the associated calculation and verification parameters). Supply chain data appears not as a separate top-level category but as part of product information and traceability, in dedicated data fields. This list is not yet law, but the delegated act will most likely be built on it, so it is worth collecting along these lines already now.
Mandatory and planned data fields
| Data field | What to provide | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre composition (%) | The share and type of every fibre (natural / synthetic / regenerated), with an exact percentage breakdown for blends — well beyond current labelling | Material supplier, weaving mill |
| Provenance / origin | Country of manufacture, locations of the main production steps, customs codes (HS/TARIC) | Garment maker, importer |
| Durability | Robustness score based on laboratory tests (initially without a minimum threshold), expected lifetime | Lab, test report |
| Repairability | Repairability indicator, spare parts/sewing information — pointing towards the ESPR horizontal repairability score | Product design, manufacturer |
| Recyclability | A score that favours mono-material products without coatings | Material data, design |
| Recycled content | Percentage + type of recycling, split into post- and pre-consumer | Material supplier + certificate |
| Hazardous substances | Substances of very high concern (SVHC): name + concentration, aligned with REACH | Chemical supplier, dye house |
| Microplastics | Microfibre release for synthetic fibres — expected to be added to the requirements | Material supplier, lab |
| Care | Care and handling instructions, warranty period | Product design |
| Supply chain steps | Identifiers of the main value-chain actors and facilities (GLN / EORI), the sequence of production steps | Every tier (fibre → yarn → fabric → garment) |
On top of this come the carbon and environmental footprint (pointing towards the PEFCR methodology) and the identification layer: a unique product identifier, batch/model number and the physical data carrier. For textiles the clear winner is a scannable QR code with GS1 Digital Link syntax, because it simultaneously opens the passport for the consumer and reads out the identifier for machines — we wrote about this separately in the QR / GS1 Digital Link article.
Who sees what? Public and restricted data
A textile DPP does not mean that all your data will be visible to everyone. The ESPR prescribes role-based access: the same QR code reveals a different set of data to the consumer, the authority and the recycler. This is especially important for textiles, where fibre composition is public but the full chemical list and supplier identity can remain a trade secret.
| Access level | Who can access it | Typical textile data |
|---|---|---|
| Public | Consumer (QR scan) | Fibre composition, care, country of origin, repairability, recyclability |
| Restricted / authorised | B2B partner, recycler | Full material composition, SVHC concentrations, disassembly / dismantling information |
| Authority / customs | Market surveillance | Full access, certificates, conformity documentation |
In practice this means it is worth assigning a visibility level to every field already at the data-collection stage, so that you don't have to go back through the whole database later. Veridyn's textile template performs this classification up front, so supplier data lands straight in the right layer.
Practical checklist: what to request from your suppliers
The biggest challenge of a textile DPP is not the technology but collecting data from the supplier chain. For a single T-shirt, the fibre, yarn, fabric, dyeing and garment assembly are often produced by five different companies in three countries. It is worth running the checklist below tier by tier — start NOW, because contractual data requests take months.
1. Material- and fibre-level data (yarn and fabric suppliers)
- The exact fibre composition in percentages, broken down by fibre, with blends indicated.
- The share and type of recycled content, ideally with an independent certificate (e.g. GRS/RCS).
- The list of chemicals used in dyeing and finishing, with the name and concentration of SVHC substances.
- For synthetic fibres, data on microfibre release, where available.
2. Manufacturing and origin data (garment maker, importer)
- The country of manufacture and the locations of the main production steps.
- The identifiers of the individual facilities (GLN or EORI), so that the supply chain steps can be traced back.
- Customs tariff codes (HS/TARIC), which are needed for product identification.
3. Performance and life-cycle data (lab, design)
- Durability / robustness test reports (abrasion, colour and wash fastness).
- Recyclability aspects: is it mono-material, does it contain a coating, is it a blend.
- Repairability information and care instructions, warranty period.
- If available: carbon and environmental footprint data according to the PEF methodology.
4. Administrative and process steps (at your end, as the responsible operator)
- Introduce a standard supplier data request template — don't collect it by email, but in structured fields.
- Record the missing data and the responsible supplier; the gap list is the best priority list.
- Write the data-provision obligation into contracts for new sourcing.
- Choose the unique product identifier (typically GTIN + batch number) and the data carrier (QR).
The full, industry-agnostic preparation sequence is set out in our DPP preparation checklist article — the above are its textile-specific additions.
Why start now?
Although a mandatory textile DPP will realistically arrive around 2028–2029, three factors mean you cannot afford to wait. First: the ban on destroying unsold textiles and the associated disclosure are already in force for large companies in 2026. Second: collecting data from the supplier chain is the task with the longest lead time — bringing a global chain on board typically takes several seasons. Third: the textile DPP data creates value in its own right — more transparent marketing, better complaint handling, less waste, and more reliable conformity documentation at customs.
Keep one thing in mind: the 49 data points proposed by the JRC reflect today's state and may still change until the delegated act is finalised. That is exactly why it is not worth thinking in terms of a one-off, static data collection, but rather a process that maintains supplier data and can be expanded as the requirements are finalised. A company that starts building its chain of fibre, origin and chemical data today will merely be fine-tuning when the delegated act appears, rather than starting from scratch.
The Veridyn platform supports exactly this process: structured data requests from suppliers, a schema-driven textile passport, QR-based public and restricted access. Take a look at our textile-industry solution, and if you also manufacture or distribute batteries, you can read about the stricter battery passport — mandatory from as early as 2027 — with more detail in our Battery passport article.
Start with an assessment: create a free account, upload your first product, and see which data fields are missing. If you have questions, get in touch with us, and you'll find the plans in the pricing section.