GS1 Digital Link is a standard for turning a product's barcode data into a real, resolvable web URL. It's the format regulators and industry expect Digital Product Passport QR codes to follow, because it's machine-readable by any GS1-aware system, not just the app that generated it — and because it lets one QR code serve a consumer, a repairer, and a customs scanner completely differently, from the same scan.
A typical Digital Product Passport link looks like this:
01 is the GS1 application identifier for a GTIN — the product code, shared by every unit of that model. 21 is the application identifier for a serial number — unique to one physical unit. Together they let a single scan resolve to that exact item's passport, not a generic product page.
Any QR code can hold a URL. What GS1 Digital Link adds is a predictable structure that customs systems, retailers, and other platforms can parse without knowing anything about your specific implementation — because the identifiers themselves (GTIN, serial number, batch) are the same ones already used across global supply chains for logistics and retail. A Digital Product Passport built on a proprietary URL scheme works fine until someone outside your own systems needs to resolve it.
The link itself doesn't change based on who scans it — the page behind it does. A consumer resolving that URL without logging in sees the public layer of the passport. An authenticated repairer sees more. A regulator sees everything. That access logic sits behind the link, not inside it, which is what lets one printed label serve every audience the regulation defines. See how that's structured in our Digital Product Passport guide.
The EU Battery Regulation and ESPR require a data carrier — typically a QR code or NFC tag — that resolves to the passport. GS1 Digital Link is the standard structure regulators and industry expect that carrier to follow, because it's machine-readable, globally unique, and works with existing GS1 barcodes already used in supply chains.
It layers GS1 identifiers into a standard URL path, for example id.example.com/01/{GTIN}/21/{serial number} — where 01 signals a product code (GTIN) and 21 signals a serial number. Scanning it resolves to a specific page for that specific unit, not a generic product listing.
A QR code is just a container for data — it could hold anything, including a plain URL with no structure. GS1 Digital Link is a standard for what that URL should contain: it embeds recognized product and unit identifiers directly in the path, so any GS1-aware system can parse it, not just the manufacturer's own app.
GS1 Digital Link QR codes, print-ready, per serial number — no separate tooling needed.
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