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GS1 Digital Link

GS1 Digital Link for DPP: How One QR Code Becomes a Passport

Every DPP needs a data carrier - a scannable code that resolves a unique identifier to the passport. GS1 Digital Link is the standard that makes one QR code work for shoppers, retail checkout and the passport at once. This is how the URI is built, how a resolver routes a scan, how it maps to ESPR Annex III, and how GS1 Sunrise 2027 fits in.

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A Digital Product Passport is only as accessible as its data carrier - the physical code on the product that turns a unique identifier into a working link to the passport. ESPR Annex III requires that the data carrier and the unique product identifier comply with one or more recognised standards, and GS1 Digital Link is the standard the industry has converged on, because it solves a specific problem: making a single QR code serve several audiences at once. The same code a shopper scans with a phone to reach a product information page or DPP is the code a retail point-of-sale system reads to get a plain GTIN at checkout, and the code customs or a recycler scans to reach a restricted data layer. GS1 Digital Link does this by expressing GS1 identifiers as a web URI rather than the older purely-numeric barcode payload. The structure is ordered and predictable: a domain (the resolver, such as id.gs1.org or your own), then GS1 Application Identifiers as path segments - 01 for the GTIN, optionally 21 for a serial number and 10 for a batch or lot - so a URI looks like https://id.gs1.org/01/09506000134352/21/12345, identifying a specific serialised item. That URI is not a static link; it is resolved. A GS1-conformant resolver receives the request and, based on the requested link type, redirects the scanner to the right resource: gs1:pip for a product information page, a sustainability or instruction-manual link type, the brand owner's API, or - the case that matters here - the Digital Product Passport. The relationships between an item and its linked resources are defined as link types in the GS1 Web Vocabulary, the ratified GS1 standard published at ref.gs1.org/voc, which is an external extension to schema.org and builds on W3C foundations like JSON-LD, so the passport data behind the link is also expressible as machine-readable Linked Data. The QR symbol itself conforms to ISO/IEC 18004. This pillar is the technical reference for engineering, packaging and compliance teams who have to choose a data carrier and stand up a resolver for their DPP, and who are simultaneously navigating GS1 Sunrise 2027 - the global retail migration from one-dimensional EAN/UPC barcodes to 2D barcodes (QR with GS1 Digital Link), targeted for 2027 - which means the same migration that future-proofs checkout can carry the DPP at no extra carrier cost. We treat GS1 Digital Link not as a barcode detail but as the front door of the entire passport: get the URI scheme, the resolver and the link types right, and every downstream system - registry, customs, repairers, recyclers, consumers - reaches the right layer of the right passport from a single scan.

  • 2018Done

    GS1 Digital Link standard ratified

    GS1 ratified the Digital Link standard, defining how GS1 identifiers (GTIN, GLN and others) are expressed as web URIs with Application Identifiers as ordered path segments. This is what lets a single QR code carry structured GS1 identification and resolve to multiple online resources, rather than a static link or a numeric-only barcode payload.

  • 2024Done

    GS1-Conformant Resolver standard and ESPR carrier basis

    GS1 published the Conformant Resolver standard governing how resolvers route a scan to approved link types, and ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) entered into force with Annex III requiring a data carrier and unique product identifier conforming to recognised standards - the legal basis that makes GS1 Digital Link a natural fit for the DPP carrier.

  • 2025-2026Done

    Sector delegated acts and registry build-out

    As ESPR sector delegated acts are drafted and the European DPP registry is built out, the data-carrier and identifier requirements crystallise per sector. GS1 Digital Link URIs and resolvers are positioned as the carrier and routing layer, with link types distinguishing the public passport view from restricted layers for customs, repairers and recyclers.

  • 2027 (target)Next deadline

    GS1 Sunrise 2027 - 2D at retail point of sale

    GS1 Sunrise 2027 is the target milestone for retail point-of-sale systems to be able to scan 2D barcodes (QR with GS1 Digital Link), alongside legacy 1D EAN/UPC. It is a transition target, not a hard ban - but from then a brand can put one 2D code on a pack that handles checkout and the DPP together. The battery passport's own 18 February 2027 deadline lands in the same window.

URI anatomy

What a GS1 Digital Link URI actually carries.

  • Resolver domain
    the host that receives the scan and routes it - id.gs1.org or a brand-owned resolver under your domain - the first element of every GS1 Digital Link URI.
  • GTIN (Application Identifier 01)
    the Global Trade Item Number identifying the product, the primary key of the URI, e.g. /01/09506000134352.
  • Serial number (AI 21)
    optional key qualifier identifying a specific serialised item - essential for item-level passports such as batteries, appended as /21/<serial>.
  • Batch or lot (AI 10)
    optional key qualifier identifying a production batch, used where passports are batch-level rather than item-level, appended as /10/<lot>.
  • Link type (linkType)
    the relationship between the item and the target resource - gs1:pip for a product information page, a sustainability or manual link type, and the Digital Product Passport link type the resolver routes DPP scans to.
  • Access layer
    public versus restricted resolution - the resolver returns the public passport view to consumers and gates restricted layers for customs, market surveillance, repairers and recyclers.
  • QR symbol (ISO/IEC 18004)
    the 2D symbology encoding the URI, sized and placed for reliable scanning on the product or its label.
  • GS1 Web Vocabulary terms
    the ratified link-type and property vocabulary (ref.gs1.org/voc), a schema.org extension, used to annotate links and express passport data as JSON-LD Linked Data.
  • Conformant resolver behaviour
    standards-compliant routing, default link handling and the list of supported link types per product, so any scanner reaches the right resource deterministically.

GS1 Digital Link is a horizontal data-carrier standard, so it applies wherever a DPP needs to be reached - across every sector in the EU rollout - rather than being tied to one product group. Its natural home is any product placed on the EU market that must carry a passport: batteries under the Batteries Regulation, and the ESPR sectors (textiles, electronics, steel and aluminium, tyres, furniture and the rest) as their delegated acts land. It is equally relevant to packaging under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, where GS1 Digital Link doubles as the consumer-facing and DPP carrier, and it overlaps directly with GS1 Sunrise 2027 - the retail migration to 2D barcodes - so an FMCG or retail brand upgrading its packaging for checkout can carry the DPP on the same code. What the standard governs is the carrier and the resolution: the URI syntax, the resolver behaviour, and the link types that route a scan. What it does not govern is the content or the legal data fields of the passport itself - those are set by each sector's delegated act, and by ESPR Annex III for the framework requirements; GS1 Digital Link is the front door, not the rooms behind it. It is also carrier-agnostic in one direction: while QR (ISO/IEC 18004) is the common 2D symbol, the same GS1 Digital Link URI can be carried in a GS1 DataMatrix or, for serialised high-value items, encoded in an RFID/NFC tag, with the resolver behaving identically. Out of scope is any assumption that a Digital Link URI must point at id.gs1.org - brand owners commonly run their own conformant resolver under their own domain, which is the right pattern for a DPP because it keeps the resolution, the link-type policy and the restricted-layer gating under the responsible economic operator's control. The teams who own this are engineering and packaging, working with compliance: the carrier decision is made once and reused across every sector the brand operates in.

The architecture of GS1 Digital Link for a DPP is a clean chain from physical scan to passport layer, and getting each link right is the whole job. It starts at the product: a QR symbol conforming to ISO/IEC 18004 encodes a GS1 Digital Link URI, built in canonical order - resolver domain, then /01/<GTIN>, then optional /21/<serial> or /10/<lot> for item or batch level. When the code is scanned, the request reaches a GS1-conformant resolver. Our platform hosts that resolver - typically under the brand owner's own domain so resolution stays under the responsible economic operator's control - and it does the routing: it reads the requested link type and the scanning context and returns the right resource. A consumer phone with no specific link type gets the public passport view (or a gs1:pip product information page); a request for the Digital Product Passport link type returns the passport; a retail POS reading the GTIN gets the plain identification it expects; and customs, repairer or recycler requests are gated to the restricted layers, authenticated and authorised. Behind the resolver, the passport itself is minted with a GS1-compliant identifier, versioned with provenance, and signed with W3C Verifiable Credentials so any party can verify authenticity independently of our infrastructure. The passport is exposed as JSON-LD using GS1 Web Vocabulary terms (a schema.org extension), so the same identifier that the human-readable view uses is also machine-readable Linked Data - which is what makes the passport agent- and registry-friendly and ready for the European DPP registry and Asset Administration Shell interoperability. Our platform handles the parts that are easy to get wrong: canonical URI construction and compression, conformant resolver behaviour and default link handling, the link-type catalogue per product, the public-versus-restricted access policy, and the QR generation sized and error-corrected for reliable scanning. For an engineering team the payoff is concrete: you put one 2D code on the pack, point it at one resolver, and every audience - shopper, checkout, customs, repairer, recycler, registry - reaches exactly the right layer of exactly the right passport, with the same carrier that satisfies GS1 Sunrise 2027.

Build it

From data carrier to live passport.

GS1 Digital Link is the front door. These are the parts of the platform that mint the identifiers, host the resolver and wire the passport into your stack.

Risks

Where Digital Link projects go wrong.

Risk

A static QR instead of a resolvable GS1 Digital Link

Consequence

The most common mistake is printing a plain QR code that hard-codes a single URL - a marketing landing page or a fixed PDF. It cannot serve multiple audiences, cannot route a retail POS to a GTIN, cannot gate restricted layers, and breaks the moment the passport URL changes or the product is serialised. It also fails to express GS1 identification, so it does not meet the spirit of ESPR Annex III's standards-based carrier requirement and cannot double as the Sunrise 2027 retail carrier.

Mitigation

Encode a canonical GS1 Digital Link URI (resolver domain + /01/GTIN + optional /21 or /10) resolved by a GS1-conformant resolver, so one code routes by link type to the passport, the GTIN and restricted layers.

Risk

No control over the resolver and link-type policy

Consequence

Relying on a generic or third-party resolver you do not control means the responsible economic operator cannot govern which link types resolve, cannot reliably gate restricted layers for customs and recyclers, and cannot guarantee the public passport view stays correct and available - a real exposure when a market-surveillance authority scans the code and reaches the wrong resource, or none.

Mitigation

Run a GS1-conformant resolver under the brand owner's domain, with an explicit link-type catalogue per product and enforced public-versus-restricted access, so resolution and gating stay under the economic operator's control.

Risk

Treating the carrier as separate from the passport data model

Consequence

Choosing a carrier in isolation - a QR vendor here, a passport system there - produces a code that resolves to a page but not to structured, verifiable passport data. The link returns HTML a human can read but not the JSON-LD Linked Data a registry, customs system or AI agent needs, and the passport behind it carries no verifiable signature, so its authenticity cannot be checked independently.

Mitigation

Wire the GS1 Digital Link resolver to a passport exposed as JSON-LD using GS1 Web Vocabulary terms and signed with verifiable credentials, so one scan reaches both the human view and machine-readable, verifiable data.

Implementation checklist

Vet any Digital Link setup against this.

  • Does the platform encode a canonical GS1 Digital Link URI (resolver domain + /01/GTIN + optional /21 serial or /10 lot) rather than a static, hard-coded QR URL?
  • Does it host a GS1-conformant resolver, ideally under your own domain, that routes by link type to the public passport, the GTIN for retail POS, and restricted layers for customs, repairers and recyclers?
  • Does it use the ratified GS1 Web Vocabulary link types and expose the passport as JSON-LD Linked Data, not just a human-readable page?
  • Does it sign each passport with verifiable credentials and version every field with provenance, so authenticity is independently checkable behind the scan?
  • Does the same 2D carrier satisfy GS1 Sunrise 2027 retail scanning and the DPP at once, with QR (ISO/IEC 18004), DataMatrix and RFID/NFC options for serialised items?
Case studies

How teams ship Digital Link for DPP.

Scenario

FMCG brand upgrading packaging

Challenge

An FMCG brand was already planning the Sunrise 2027 migration to 2D barcodes for retail checkout and did not want a second, separate code on the pack just to carry the Digital Product Passport its category will soon require.

Solution

One GS1 Digital Link QR encoding /01/GTIN under the brand's own conformant resolver, routing retail POS scans to the GTIN, consumer scans to the product information page, and DPP scans to the passport - a single code, three audiences.

Result

One 2D code that handles checkout and the DPP, no duplicate carriers on the pack, and a Sunrise-ready packaging line that already supports the passport.

Scenario

Battery manufacturer with serialised passports

Challenge

A battery maker facing the binding 18 February 2027 battery passport deadline needed item-level passports - each cell pack uniquely identified and resolvable - not a single shared link, and had to gate a public layer from restricted layers for recyclers and authorities.

Solution

Serialised GS1 Digital Link URIs (/01/GTIN/21/serial) on each pack, resolved by a conformant resolver that returns the public battery passport view to consumers and routes authenticated recycler and authority requests to restricted layers.

Result

Unique, resolvable passports per battery, a public-versus-restricted layer split that satisfies the Batteries Regulation, and one carrier scheme reusable across product lines.

Scenario

Engineering team integrating the registry

Challenge

An engineering team needed the passport behind the QR to be machine-readable and verifiable - consumable by the forthcoming European DPP registry, customs systems and AI agents - not just a web page a human can open.

Solution

A GS1 Digital Link resolver wired to a passport exposed as JSON-LD using GS1 Web Vocabulary terms and signed with W3C Verifiable Credentials, with Asset Administration Shell export for industrial interoperability.

Result

One scan that serves both a human view and structured, verifiable Linked Data, ready for the registry, customs and agentic consumption without a second integration.

GS1 Digital Link FAQ

Frequently asked,
about GS1 Digital Link for DPP.

Recurring questions from engineering, packaging and compliance teams choosing a data carrier and resolver for their Digital Product Passport.

Talk to an integration engineer →
What is GS1 Digital Link?+

It is a GS1 standard (ratified in 2018) that expresses GS1 identifiers as web URIs, so a single QR code can carry structured identification and resolve to multiple online resources. A URI is built in order - resolver domain, then /01/<GTIN>, optionally /21/<serial> and /10/<lot> - and a GS1-conformant resolver routes each scan, by link type, to the right resource: a product page, the brand's API, or the Digital Product Passport.

How does GS1 Digital Link work as a DPP data carrier?+

ESPR Annex III requires the DPP to be reachable via a data carrier and unique product identifier conforming to recognised standards. A QR code encoding a GS1 Digital Link URI meets that: the GTIN (and optional serial or lot) is the unique identifier, and a conformant resolver routes a scan to the passport via the Digital Product Passport link type, while routing retail POS scans to the plain GTIN and gating restricted layers for customs and recyclers.

What are link types in GS1 Digital Link?+

A link type defines the relationship between the identified product and a linked resource - for example gs1:pip for a product information page, plus types for instruction manuals, sustainability information, the brand's API, and the Digital Product Passport. Link types are defined in the GS1 Web Vocabulary, a ratified GS1 standard published at ref.gs1.org/voc that extends schema.org, and they are what lets one code resolve to the right destination per audience.

What is GS1 Sunrise 2027?+

GS1 Sunrise 2027 is the global retail target for point-of-sale systems to scan 2D barcodes (QR with GS1 Digital Link), alongside legacy 1D EAN/UPC barcodes, by 2027. It is a transition target rather than a hard ban on 1D codes, but it means a single 2D code can handle both checkout and richer data like the Digital Product Passport - so the Sunrise migration and the DPP carrier are the same project.

How does it map to ESPR Annex III?+

ESPR Annex III sets the framework requirement that the data carrier and unique product identifier comply with one or more recognised standards. GS1 Digital Link, with the GTIN as the unique identifier and the QR symbol conforming to ISO/IEC 18004, satisfies that requirement, and the GS1 Web Vocabulary lets the passport behind it be expressed as JSON-LD Linked Data - which is what the European DPP registry and machine consumers need.

Do I have to use id.gs1.org as my resolver?+

No. id.gs1.org is GS1's public resolver, but brand owners commonly run their own GS1-conformant resolver under their own domain - and for a DPP that is the recommended pattern, because it keeps resolution, the link-type policy and restricted-layer gating under the responsible economic operator's control. Our platform hosts a conformant resolver you can run under your domain.

One code. Every audience. The whole passport.

GS1 Digital Link turns a single QR into the front door of your Digital Product Passport - resolving shoppers, retail checkout, customs and recyclers to exactly the right layer, and satisfying ESPR Annex III and GS1 Sunrise 2027 from the same carrier. Read the integration docs or talk to an engineer, and we will map your products to a canonical URI scheme, stand up a conformant resolver under your domain, and wire it to verifiable, JSON-LD passports - live across English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Polish from day one.

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