---
title: GS1 Digital Link
description: GS1 Digital Link is the GS1 standard that turns a product identifier (like a GTIN) into a web URL, so a single QR code can resolve to different content — a consumer page, a JSON-LD passport, a service endpoint — depending on who scans it. It is the data-carrier format the EU Digital Product Passport is built to use.
canonical: "https://www.tracepass.eu/glossary/gs1-digital-link"
locale: en
source: "https://www.tracepass.eu/glossary/gs1-digital-link"
---

# GS1 Digital Link

> GS1 Digital Link is the GS1 standard that turns a product identifier (like a GTIN) into a web URL, so a single QR code can resolve to different content — a consumer page, a JSON-LD passport, a service endpoint — depending on who scans it. It is the data-carrier format the EU Digital Product Passport is built to use.

GS1 Digital Link is the GS1 standard that turns a product identifier (like a GTIN) into a web URL, so a single QR code can resolve to different content — a consumer page, a JSON-LD passport, a service endpoint — depending on who scans it. It is the data-carrier format the EU Digital Product Passport is built to use.

A traditional barcode encodes only a number. A GS1 Digital Link encodes a resolvable URL of the shape `https://id.example.com/01/<GTIN>/21/<serial>`, so the same printed QR can serve a human-readable page in a browser and a machine-readable JSON-LD passport to a system that asks for it (via HTTP content negotiation).

For a Digital Product Passport this matters because one carrier on the physical product has to serve many audiences — consumers, recyclers, market-surveillance authorities — each needing different data. GS1 Digital Link is how one QR does that without printing several codes.

## FAQ

### Is GS1 Digital Link the same as a normal QR code?

The QR symbol is the same; what differs is what's encoded inside. A GS1 Digital Link QR encodes a structured, resolvable web URL rather than a bare number, which is what lets one code serve a passport, a consumer page and a service endpoint.

### Does the EU Digital Product Passport require GS1 Digital Link?

ESPR requires a standardised, open data carrier; GS1 Digital Link is the carrier the ecosystem (and the CIRPASS work preparing the EU DPP registry) has converged on. TracePass publishes every passport behind a GS1 Digital Link QR.

Source: [www.gs1.org/standards/gs1-digital-link](https://www.gs1.org/standards/gs1-digital-link)

## Related terms

- [Digital Product Passport (DPP)](https://www.tracepass.eu/glossary/digital-product-passport)
- [Data carrier](https://www.tracepass.eu/glossary/data-carrier)
- [EPCIS 2.0](https://www.tracepass.eu/glossary/epcis)
- [JSON-LD](https://www.tracepass.eu/glossary/json-ld)