What does "ESPR-ready" mean?
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, EU 2024/1781, introduces a Digital Product Passport per product, sector by sector. The data each sector has to carry, and the format it has to take, are set by delegated acts, and most of those are not published yet. ESPR-ready means that your product data is already structured along the requirements that are known, in one record per product with a permanent identifier, a public page and a QR code, so that when an act publishes the official format, adapting is a plugin update and not a new project. It does not mean, and cannot mean, that a passport is compliant with a format that does not exist yet.
When does it apply to my products?
In stages. The European registry is planned to be operational in 2026, batteries are the first sector with a mandatory passport, from 2027, and textile and apparel follow with delegated acts expected around 2027 and 2028. Furniture, mattresses, tyres, steel and others come after, until most goods are covered by the end of the decade. Dates move; the blog's timeline article is kept current.
Is there an exemption for small businesses?
No. The regulation applies to the product placed on the market, whatever the size of the company that places it. That is why DPTag exists: a shop with no compliance budget and no technical team needs the same passport as a group with an ERP, and it needs it to be far cheaper to produce.
Which products are covered today?
The plugin ships a textile and apparel template and a furniture template, with more to come as the acts are written, always in the free plugin. Passports are created per WooCommerce product; variations share the passport of their parent product.
Where is my data stored?
In your own WordPress database, as a passport record per product, with revision history. Nothing is stored on dptag.com and nothing is sent there, with one exception you trigger yourself: the optional AI autofill, which sends a product's text when you click it.
Does a passport have to be hosted on my site?
The regulation asks for a passport that stays accessible for the life of the product, and does not say who must host it. Hosting it on your own domain, at an address you control, is the simplest way to keep that promise. DPTag serves the page from your WordPress, independently of your theme, and it survives the product's removal from the catalogue.
Do I need GS1 codes, GTINs or a special identifier?
Not to use the plugin. A passport gets a permanent identifier of its own, which the QR code encodes. When a product has a GTIN in WooCommerce, the passport carries it too, on the page, in the API and in the structured data. Whether an official identifier scheme will be required per sector is one of the things the delegated acts decide.
What happens to printed QR codes if I edit, rename or delete a product?
Nothing. The code encodes the passport's permanent identifier, not the product's name or address. Edits are visible at the next scan; a product removed from the catalogue keeps its passport page. Only deleting the passport permanently kills the code, which is why the plugin's own uninstall never deletes a passport. See QR codes and labels.
Can I show a passport in several languages?
The passport is written in the language of its market, and the public page shows its labels in that language, in all 23 official languages. Writing translations of the content into other languages is a feature of the Pro add-on; the free plugin stores and serves them.
What does the plugin send to other servers?
Nothing on its own. No update check outside wordpress.org, no analytics, no fonts from a CDN, no QR service: the codes are drawn in your browser. The one network call is the AI autofill, only when you click it, described with what it sends on its own page. The Pro add-on additionally validates its licence with dptag.com, sending the key, the store address and an opaque site identifier.
Can I export my data or leave?
Your passports are WordPress posts in your database and stay there whatever you do with the plugin. The public API returns each passport as JSON, and the Pro add-on exports the whole catalogue as CSV. Deactivating or deleting the plugin never deletes a passport.
Where do I get help?
The contact page reaches the maker directly. Pro plans include priority support.