DPP Registry vs EPREL: How EU Registries Connect

If your products carry an energy label, you already know one EU registry: EPREL. With the Digital Product Passport (DPP) another one arrives — the DPP registry. It is worth understanding early how the two systems differ and how they may connect.

What EPREL is

EPREL is the European database of products carrying an energy label, operating under Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 on energy labelling. Manufacturers and importers register their models in it before placing them on the market, and part of the data feeds a public search tool available to consumers.

A key feature of EPREL is that it holds the full label data — efficiency parameters, product information sheets and technical documentation. Registration in EPREL has been mandatory since 1 January 2019, and a similar approach also covers tyre labelling (Regulation (EU) 2020/740). It is a mature system, running for years, that many companies have already grown used to.

What the DPP registry is

The DPP registry works differently. It is not a store of full passports but an index and verification layer. It holds identifiers, where relevant commodity codes, and registration metadata, and points to where the actual passport can be found.

The passport data itself stays decentralised — with the economic operator or its service provider. This is a deliberate design that limits the risk of a single point of failure and keeps control of the data with the company. The registry confirms a product's identity and directs you to the data, but it does not gather all of it in one place.

A full database versus an index

The most important difference therefore comes down to the scope of stored data:

• EPREL is a full database: it holds the actual label content and product sheets.
• The DPP registry is an index: it holds identifiers and metadata and points to data kept elsewhere.

This distinction has practical consequences. In EPREL, registering means uploading a complete set of data to the Commission's central database. In the DPP registry, you mainly register the product's identity and where its passport can be found. The burden falls differently: once you upload full data, once you point the way to it.

Why two different models

The difference is not accidental. EPREL was built to publish specific, comparable energy parameters, so a full, centralised database serves that job well. The DPP, by contrast, spans very different sectors and a far broader range of life-cycle information.

If all of that data were held centrally, the registry would become a huge, sensitive point. The index model is safer and more flexible here. We expand on this logic in DPP data versioning and retention.

The risk of double reporting

With two registries in play, the question of overlapping obligations arises. A product such as a household appliance may fall under both energy labelling and the future product passport. Without coordination, a company would report the same information twice, to two different systems.

To avoid this, a single-submission principle is under discussion. Under a Commission proposal, expected from mid-2026, the registries would connect so that data entered once need not be duplicated. That signals a direction rather than a finished solution — it is worth tracking how it develops.

What it means for your company

For now, EPREL and the DPP registry are separate systems with different roles. In practice it is worth:

• treating energy-label data and passport data as related but separate obligations,
• maintaining one tidy source of product data that feeds both registries,
• tracking work on the single-submission principle, as it may simplify reporting.

A shared, well-structured dataset is the best preparation for both worlds. The cleaner your product data, the less effort each further filing costs you. We cover the technical rules for describing that data in Common specifications.

A practical example: a household appliance

Imagine a washing machine that is subject to energy labelling and may in future be covered by the product passport. EPREL will hold the full label data: efficiency class, product sheet and documentation. The DPP registry, by contrast, will hold an identifier and a pointer to where the passport lives.

This illustrates the difference in roles well. The same product is described in two systems, but each performs a different function and stores a different scope of data.

What to watch today

Even if a full link between the registries is a thing of the future, a few habits are worth forming now. Keep one source of product data and map the fields once, so you can feed different systems from it. Track work on the single-submission principle too, because it may change the scope of what you report and where.

One source, many obligations

The practical lesson from comparing the two registries is simple: instead of keeping separate datasets for each system, it pays to maintain one well-governed source of product information. From it you can feed both EPREL and the DPP registry, and in future other reporting obligations too.

This approach limits the risk of discrepancies between systems and simplifies updates over time.

Key takeaways

• EPREL (2017/1369) is a full energy-label database, mandatory since 2019.
• The DPP registry is an index of identifiers and metadata; full data stays decentralised.
• The difference comes down to "full database vs index".
• A single-submission principle (proposal from mid-2026) would link the registries and reduce double reporting.
• One tidy data source can feed both systems.

See how CyfroPass organises product data for different EU registries without writing code. Visit cyfropass.pl and start with your first product.