Definitions

The EU's carbon tariff on imports — importers of carbon-intensive goods pay a carbon price equivalent to what EU producers pay under the Emissions Trading System.

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) — Regulation (EU) 2023/956 — requires importers of certain carbon-intensive goods to purchase CBAM certificates equivalent to the carbon price that would have been paid had the goods been produced under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The definitive phase began on 1 January 2026; first certificate surrender is due 30 September 2027.

The total greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product across its lifecycle — a mandatory DPP data field and a core metric for batteries, ESPR products, and CSRD reporting.

A carbon footprint (in product regulation context: Product Carbon Footprint or PCF) is the total quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — expressed in CO₂-equivalent (CO₂e) — attributable to a product across its full lifecycle: raw material extraction, manufacturing, transport, use, and end-of-life. Carbon footprint is a mandatory data field in the EU's Digital Product Passport framework and already legally required for batteries.

The EU's target economic model — designing out waste, keeping materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. The foundation behind every DPP regulation.

A circular economy is an economic model that eliminates waste and maximises resource use by designing products for longevity, reuse, repair, and recycling — replacing the traditional linear "take, make, dispose" model.

The EU directive requiring large companies to report detailed sustainability data using standardised ESRS standards — substantially narrowed in scope by the 2026 Omnibus package.

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) — Directive (EU) 2022/2464 — requires in-scope companies to report detailed, standardised sustainability information using the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). It replaced the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) with far more detailed requirements. The scope was significantly narrowed by the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2026/470, published in the Official Journal on 26 February 2026.

The physical interface on a product — QR code, RFID tag, NFC chip, or similar — that links the physical product to its Digital Product Passport.

A data carrier is the machine-readable interface attached to a physical product that links it to its Digital Product Passport. Under ESPR Article 9, every product subject to a DPP obligation must carry a data carrier that enables automatic identification and provides access to the product's DPP dataset.

The legal mechanism the EU Commission uses to create product-specific ecodesign and DPP requirements under ESPR — without going back to the full legislative process.

A delegated act is a legal instrument through which the European Commission adopts binding product-specific rules under an existing regulation — without needing to go through the full co-legislative process (European Parliament + Council). ESPR Article 4 grants the Commission power to adopt delegated acts setting ecodesign requirements and DPP data fields for individual product categories.

The EU's mandatory product data standard — a digital record of every product's composition, origin, sustainability, and end-of-life handling, accessible via QR code.

A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a standardised digital record containing information about a product's composition, origin, sustainability characteristics, and end-of-life handling. It is made accessible via a data carrier (such as a QR code) attached to the product, linking to a structured dataset that can be read by consumers, businesses, regulators, and recyclers.

The CSRD concept requiring companies to assess sustainability from two directions: how the world affects the business (financial) and how the business affects the world (impact).

Double materiality is the assessment framework required by CSRD (Directive (EU) 2022/2464) that asks companies to evaluate sustainability issues from two distinct perspectives simultaneously:

The EU's central Digital Product Passport registry — a Commission-operated system that issues unique identifiers and validates that every DPP in the EU can be found and verified.

The DPP Registry is a central EU infrastructure system, operated by the European Commission, that manages unique identifiers for Digital Product Passports. Under ESPR Article 12, the Commission must establish the DPP Registry by 19 July 2026 — one year after the regulation's first delegated act window opens.

The obligation on companies to identify, prevent, and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their own operations and supply chains — mandated by the CSDDD and EUDR.

In EU sustainability law, due diligence refers to a company's obligation to systematically identify, assess, prevent, mitigate, and account for adverse impacts on human rights and the environment across its operations and supply chains. It is not a one-time check — it is an ongoing process embedded in corporate risk management. Two EU laws make due diligence legally binding: the CSDDD and the EUDR.

Designing products with environmental impact in mind from the start — the EU principle that 80% of a product's environmental impact is determined at the design stage.

Ecodesign is the practice of integrating environmental considerations into the product design process — addressing durability, repairability, recyclability, energy efficiency, and resource use before a product is manufactured.

The EU's horizontal product regulation — the legal framework mandating Digital Product Passports and ecodesign requirements for nearly all physical products sold in the EU.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) — Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 — is the EU's primary product sustainability law. It replaces the old Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) and extends ecodesign requirements from energy-related products to nearly all physical goods sold in the EU. ESPR is the legal basis for Digital Product Passports.

Any entity in the product supply chain with DPP obligations — manufacturers, importers, authorised representatives, distributors, and fulfilment service providers.

An economic operator is any natural or legal person involved in making a product available on the EU market. Under ESPR and related regulations, economic operators have specific compliance obligations — including the creation, maintenance, and accessibility of Digital Product Passports.

The EU law requiring companies to prove that seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya, wood — and their derived products did not cause deforestation.

The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) — Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 — prohibits placing on the EU market (or exporting from the EU) products made from seven commodities unless operators can demonstrate those commodities were produced on land not deforested after 31 December 2020. Application for large and medium operators begins 30 December 2026, following a delay from the original 2024 deadline.

The EU's classification system that defines what counts as a 'green' investment — directing capital toward circular economy and climate-aligned activities.

The EU Taxonomy (Regulation (EU) 2020/852) is a classification system that defines which economic activities qualify as environmentally sustainable. It provides a common language for investors, companies, and policymakers to determine what counts as "green" — preventing greenwashing in financial markets.

The EU's master plan for climate neutrality by 2050 — the policy framework that created ESPR, DPP, and every circular economy regulation.

The European Green Deal is the EU's comprehensive policy framework, adopted in December 2019, to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It is not a single regulation — it is the strategic umbrella under which every sustainability regulation on this platform was created.

The EU policy principle that shifts end-of-life costs and obligations from taxpayers and municipalities back to the producers who place products on the market.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy principle requiring producers — manufacturers and importers — to bear financial and/or operational responsibility for the end-of-life management of the products they place on the market. In the EU, EPR is embedded in the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC, Article 8) and operationalised through sector-specific regulations.

The requirement that DPP data can be read, exchanged, and verified across different IT systems, platforms, and stakeholders — defined in ESPR as a core technical requirement.

Interoperability in the DPP context means that product passport data can be accessed, exchanged, and understood by different software systems, platforms, and stakeholders — regardless of which technology or provider created the DPP. ESPR Article 10 requires DPPs to be built on open, interoperable standards so that a recycler in Poland can read a DPP created by a manufacturer in Japan using a software platform built in Germany.

The EU enforcement mechanism that checks whether products on the EU market comply with applicable regulations — including DPP requirements, ecodesign standards, and substance restrictions.

Market surveillance is the EU's system for enforcing product compliance requirements. Market surveillance authorities (MSAs) — designated national agencies in each EU member state — check whether products placed on the EU market meet applicable legal requirements. For DPP-regulated products, this includes verifying that a valid DPP exists, is accessible via the product's data carrier, and contains the data required by the relevant delegated act.

The EU's legally binding commitment to climate neutrality by 2050 — enshrined in law, funded with over 1 trillion, and enforced through product regulations.

Net Zero 2050 refers to the EU's legally binding target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, established by the European Climate Law (Regulation (EU) 2021/1119). This means the EU must reduce emissions to the point where any remaining emissions are fully offset by carbon removal.

A product's measurable capacity to be collected, sorted, and reprocessed into secondary materials — graded A to D under PPWR, and a required DPP data field under ESPR.

Recyclability is the measurable capacity of a product or material to be collected from consumers or industry, sorted by material type, and reprocessed into secondary raw materials that can substitute for virgin materials. In EU law, recyclability is not a binary yes/no — it is a graded performance characteristic formally defined for packaging under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and increasingly required as a DPP data field under ESPR.

The EU's foundational chemicals regulation — requires registration, evaluation, and authorisation of chemical substances, and is the basis for SVHC disclosure in Digital Product Passports.

REACH — Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 — is the EU's comprehensive chemicals regulation, managed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). It requires chemical manufacturers and importers to register substances, evaluate their safety, and obtain authorisation for the most hazardous substances before they can be used. REACH is the legal foundation for Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) disclosure, which feeds directly into Digital Product Passport requirements.

The ECHA database for Substances of Concern In Products — mandatory since January 2021 for any article containing an SVHC above 0.1% by weight, and a structural predecessor to DPP substance data.

The SCIP database (Substances of Concern In articles as such or in complex objects in Products) is a publicly accessible database operated by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Submissions have been mandatory since 5 January 2021 under Article 9(1)(i) of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC). Any company that supplies an article containing a Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) above 0.1% weight by weight must submit information to SCIP before or when placing the product on the EU market.

Hazardous chemical substances tracked under REACH and disclosed in Digital Product Passports — currently 251 substances on the EU Candidate List.

Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) are chemical substances identified by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as having serious effects on human health or the environment. They include carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxins, persistent bioaccumulative toxins, and endocrine disruptors.

The machine-readable code that links a physical product to its Digital Product Passport — assigned at model, batch, or item level depending on the product category's delegated act.

A unique identifier is a machine-readable code that unambiguously identifies a product and links it to its Digital Product Passport. Under ESPR Article 9, every product subject to a DPP obligation must carry a unique identifier encoded in its data carrier (typically a QR code). The DPP Registry issues or validates these identifiers, ensuring global uniqueness across the EU market.