Digital Product Passport vs Digital Certificate of Authenticity

Both are digital. Both are reached from the product. Both are sold internally as “trust”. Several forces keep the two documents blurred together:

• The passport arrives with a regulatory deadline and a budget, so it absorbs every adjacent idea.
• Vendors describe the passport as “product identity”, which suggests it proves identity.
• Luxury brands already issue paper certificates, so a digital passport looks like the same card in a new format.
• Counterfeiting and sustainability data sit in different departments, with different owners.
• A printed QR code can carry a passport. Teams assume it can carry proof too.

The last point causes the most damage. The distinction matters most where counterfeiting is heaviest. Clothing, footwear and leather goods made up 62% of seized counterfeits in the OECD/EUIPO study Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025, which put global counterfeit trade at USD 467 billion in 2021. Those categories are also among the first in line for EU passport requirements. A brand selling them will likely need both documents: a passport because the regulation asks for it, and proof of authenticity because customers and the resale market do.

A Digital Product Passport (DPP) is regulated product information, accessible through a data carrier. It covers materials, durability, repairability, recycled content and end of life. The legal basis is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR).

The content is defined by product group, through delegated acts. Most of it is identical for every unit of a model. Some of it is public, some restricted to repairers, recyclers or authorities.

The passport answers one question: what is this product, and what can be done with it at the end of its life?

It does not answer whether the item in your hand is real. A counterfeit can display a perfect passport if the carrier it points to can be copied.

A digital certificate of authenticity is brand-issued proof that a specific item is genuine. It is also a record of ownership and, often, of service history. It is the successor of the card in the watch box and the stamped booklet.

No regulation requires it. It is a brand choice, justified commercially: fewer disputes on resale, stronger after-sales, a verifiable provenance for the next buyer.

The certificate is always item-specific. It carries personal information about owners and purchases, so it is private by design and shared only with consent.

The distinction that matters: the passport is about the product, the certificate is about this item and its owner. A passport can be read by anyone with the right access. A certificate is only worth something if it can be checked against the physical object.

	Digital Product Passport	Digital certificate of authenticity
Purpose	Inform on sustainability and circularity	Prove this item is genuine, record ownership
Required by	EU regulation, by product group	Nobody, a brand choice
Granularity	Model, batch or item	Always the individual item
Audience	Public, repairers, recyclers, authorities	Owner, buyers, resellers, after-sales
Changes over time	Updated when product data changes	Updated at each transfer or service
Privacy	Mostly public product data	Owner data private by design
Proves genuineness	No	Yes, if bound to a secure carrier

The privacy row shapes the architecture. Passport data is designed to be shared. Certificate data must not be. One resolver can serve both, provided it applies separate access rules to each.

The “required by” row shapes budgets. Passports come with a sponsor and a deadline. Certificates have to win funding on commercial grounds. Brands often build the passport first and discover later that the carrier they chose cannot support a certificate.

The passport is moving from framework to obligation:

• ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) is in force.
• The central EU DPP registry has been live since 20 July 2026 (European Commission).
• Textiles and apparel requirements are indicatively expected from 2027. Obligations apply at least 18 months after each delegated act, so enforcement is realistically 2028 to 2029.
• Batteries have their own passport from 18 February 2027.
• In 2026 the EU formally recognised NFC as a compliant passport data carrier (Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736, referencing EN 18220).

In France, AGEC (2020) already pushes product information to consumers.

Certificates of authenticity have no equivalent rule. Nothing in the passport regulation asks for proof that an item is genuine. Brands fill that gap themselves, and the carrier they choose decides whether the gap is actually filled. The passport can live on almost any carrier. A certificate needs one that cannot be copied.

For the supply chain side of the regulation, how the Digital Product Passport will impact luxury supply chains sets out the operational consequences.

A PDF or a wallet pass can be screenshotted and shown next to a counterfeit. A certificate becomes proof only when it is issued against an item identity that can be verified physically.

The identifier is built from GS1 Digital Link, GTIN plus serial. The trust layer is a cryptographic NFC chip of the NTAG 424 DNA class (ISO/IEC 14443-A, NFC Forum Type 4, AES-128). Its Secure Unique NFC (SUN) messaging produces a new signed code on every tap.

Here is the sequence, from tap to history:

1. Tap. The buyer taps the product with a phone. The chip returns a one-time signed code inside the URL.
2. Verify the chip. The platform checks the signature with the keys held for that chip, and checks the code is fresh, not replayed.
3. Match the item record. The verified identity is linked to the item record and to the certificate presented by the seller.
4. Apply access rules. The buyer sees the issue date, status and number of transfers. Owner details stay private.
5. Show the status. The result reads genuine, reported stolen or decommissioned.

Swap the bag for a copy and the sequence fails at step 2. A copy has no chip, or a cloned chip that cannot sign. The certificate then matches nothing the tap can verify.

Think of a paper certificate as a photograph of a lock. A bound digital certificate is the lock itself, which opens only with a key that is generated fresh each time and held inside the product.

The same logic applies to certificates issued as tokens or on a ledger. A record can be perfectly secure and still prove nothing about the physical object if the link between them can be faked. The binding is the proof. Product authentication technology explains how that binding is established at the point of production.

The rule is simple: NFC for trust, visible carrier for compliance. One identity can carry both documents. The trust layer decides whether the certificate means anything.

Carrier	Digital Product Passport	Certificate of authenticity
Printed QR code (GS1 Digital Link)	Yes, the common visible carrier	No: a copy scans identically
Copy-resistant print (ACM-secured barcode, Diamond Dust)	Yes	Yes, where unit value does not justify a chip
Cryptographic NFC (NTAG 424 DNA class)	Yes, formally recognised in 2026	Yes: a new signed code on every tap, no app needed
NFC with TagTamper	Yes	Yes, plus first-open evidence on sealed goods

Phone compatibility is rarely a blocker. iPhone XS and XR and later read NFC tags in the background, with no app. Android reads natively with the screen on.

Metal and liquids need planning. Standard tags detune on metal, so watch cases and metal closures need on-metal tags with a ferrite layer. Alternatively the tag can sit in the box or in a certificate card that stays with the piece.

Published converter prices for NTAG 424 DNA-class labels cluster around USD 0.45 to 0.65 per unit at five-figure volumes. On-metal variants add 7 to 30%. Above 50,000 units, pricing is quote-only (public catalogues, 2026).

Standard, non-secure NTAG213-class tags list around EUR 0.19 to 0.23 at 1,000 to 10,000 units (public catalogues, 2026). They are cheaper because they cannot sign anything. They are fine for engagement. They are not proof.

A printed QR adds roughly zero marginal print cost (industry sources, 2026). The real cost is serialisation and the platform behind it.

A secure chip is not always the right answer. A serialised QR is the better choice in several situations:

• Passport only. If the goal is DPP compliance and nothing else, a visible GS1 Digital Link QR is the practical default.
• Very high volumes and low unit value. Where a chip would weigh heavily on the bill of materials, print wins.
• No secondary market. If items are consumed, not resold, there is little ownership history to certify.
• Cost-constrained lines. Adding a chip requires inlay, encoding and commissioning steps that some lines cannot absorb.

The honest limit: a plain QR can carry a passport but cannot carry a certificate. Anyone can photograph and reproduce it. Copy-resistant print offers a middle path for mid-value goods. Brands that expect resale, or already fight counterfeits, should decide on the carrier before the passport rollout, not after it.

Needs differ by segment.

Watches and jewellery. Resale is the main use case. The certificate matters more than the passport. Metal cases need ferrite-backed tags or a tag in the box or card.

Leather goods and fashion. The highest counterfeit exposure and the earliest passport timelines. Both documents are needed. Repair is the clearest case: the passport gives materials and construction, the certificate gives service history.

Wine and spirits. Closures carry the identity. NTAG 424 DNA in its TagTamper variant adds first-open evidence, which protects against refilling.

Cosmetics and fragrance. Passport and compliance information lead. Authentication protects against diversion and grey market sales, and high volumes make cost per unit a real constraint.

Furniture and premium audio. Long product life makes service records valuable. Insurance and warranty claims benefit from verifiable ownership.

Cigars. Boxes and bands carry the identity, with a strong grey market and gifting use case.

Ownership certificates and a verifiable second-hand market depend on the same foundation: a physical item that can prove itself.

A certificate earns its value from what it records over time. Four kinds of information, each with its own privacy rule:

Information	Example	Who can see it
Origin	Model, reference, date and place of first sale	Owner; summary visible to buyers
Ownership	Current owner, number of transfers	Owner only; buyers see the count, not names
Service	Authorised repairs, part replacements	Owner and authorised service centres
Status	Genuine, reported stolen, decommissioned	Anyone verifying the item

The stolen status is often overlooked. Once a registered owner reports a theft, every later verification shows it. Resale of stolen goods becomes a harder proposition.

1. The current owner starts a transfer from their account or by tapping the item.
2. The buyer taps the product. The carrier proves it is genuine and matches the certificate.
3. Both parties confirm. The owner changes on the item record.
4. The previous ownership is kept as an event, without exposing personal details to the new owner.

Brands decide how open this is. Some keep transfer inside their own channels. Others let authorised resellers verify and transfer on the buyer’s behalf.

Shared: one unique item identifier, one data carrier, one resolver and one access model.

Separate: the passport holds public, regulated product content. The certificate holds owner data, transfers and service history. Audiences and permissions differ.

Designed this way, a repairer gets materials and repair guidance from the passport and the service history from the certificate, in a single tap. Why DPP projects fail when product identity is an afterthought describes what happens when the identity is bolted on late.