> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://tieback.io/docs/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://tieback.io/docs/_mcp/server.

# Lesson 1: What a Passport Is in Law

> Academy Foundations Module 1 Lesson 1: the legal definition of a Digital Product Passport and the three properties that separate it from ordinary product information.

**Module 1, Lesson 1 of 4. About 9 minutes.**

## Orientation

You are almost certainly going to be asked to define this in a meeting, in one sentence, by someone
who does not want the history of ecodesign policy. The definition you give will shape the budget
you get. Say "a QR code on the product" and you will be funded for a printing project. Say it
accurately and the conversation becomes about data ownership, which is where the actual work is.

So the first thing to learn is not a concept. It is a sentence you can defend.

## Learning Objectives

## How to Read the Definition

The definition has four moving parts, and each one is doing work. When you read it in the canonical
article below, read it slowly and notice each of them.

1. **A product specific set of data.** Not a document, not a page. A data set. The unit is the
   attribute, not the file.
2. **Specified in a delegated act.** The content is not fixed by the framework legislation. It is
   fixed later, per product group. This is the single most consequential clause in the definition
   and Module 5 is devoted to it.
3. **Accessible electronically through a data carrier.** The carrier is how you reach it. It is not
   what it is.
4. **Linked to a unique product identifier.** Without a persistent identifier there is nothing to
   resolve, and nothing to keep resolving in ten years.

Then three properties follow: it is identified, it is machine readable, and it is access
controlled. That third property is the one most often lost in early designs. A passport is not one
view shown to everybody. Different user groups receive different subsets of the data, and the
design has to carry that from the start rather than bolt it on later.

**The common misreading** is to treat "machine readable" as satisfied by a web page. A web page is
readable by a person using a machine. Machine readable means a system can consume the structured
data without a human interpreting a layout.

#### [What is a Digital Product Passport?](/docs/knowledge-base/digital-product-passports/what-is-a-digital-product-passport)

Read the Definition section now, then the Regulatory Context section. These carry the
authoritative wording, the legal instrument and the list of what is confirmed in the framework.
Nothing in this lesson replaces them.

#### Defining the Aurelia S2 passport in one sentence

A weak answer: "The S2 will have a passport, so we need a QR code on the housing before launch."

A defensible answer: "The S2 passport is a structured data set about the trimmer, its battery pack
and its materials, bound to a persistent identifier, reachable by scanning a carrier on the
product, and served so that a consumer, a repairer, a recycler and a market surveillance authority
each see the subset intended for them. The carrier is the last thing we build, not the first."

The second answer takes ten seconds longer to say and changes who is in the project team. Note
that it names the battery pack separately: the S2 carries a component that has its own regime, and
pretending the product is one undifferentiated object hides that immediately.

#### Write your own one sentence definition

Take one real product of yours and write the defensible version of the sentence above. Name the
product, the data set, the identifier, the carrier and at least two distinct audiences with
different access needs.

If you cannot name who owns the data in that sentence, you have found the gap that Module 3 is
about. Keep the sentence; you will reuse it in the Module 6 capstone.

## Knowledge Check

## Takeaways

* A passport is a data set with an identifier and an access model, not a document and not a carrier.
* Its content is set per product group in a delegated act, not by the framework.
* Three properties define it: identified, machine readable, access controlled.
* Responsibility sits with the operator placing the product on the market, wherever the data came from.

**If you remember one thing:** the word "passport" names the data and the rules around it, not the
thing printed on the box.

## Sources

Every factual statement in this lesson comes from
[What is a Digital Product Passport?](/docs/knowledge-base/digital-product-passports/what-is-a-digital-product-passport),
sections Definition and Regulatory Context, which cite the underlying legal instruments directly.

## Related Docs

* [Lesson 2: What a Passport Is Not](/docs/academy/foundations/module-1/lesson-2)
* [Module 1 overview](/docs/academy/foundations/module-1)
* [What is a Digital Product Passport?](/docs/knowledge-base/digital-product-passports/what-is-a-digital-product-passport)
* [Glossary: Digital Product Passport](/docs/knowledge-base/glossary/digital-product-passport)