GS1 Digital Link 101: What Indian Exporters Need to Know About GTIN and QR Codes

Any QR code can point to a web page. GS1 Digital Link is specifically a standardized way of doing it — and that standardization is the entire reason a DPP built on it is useful to people who aren’t using your app.

What a GTIN actually is

A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the standardized product identifier behind every barcode you’ve ever scanned at a till. It’s issued through GS1, and it already underpins how retailers, customs systems, and logistics providers identify products globally — which is exactly why the EU DPP framework builds on it rather than inventing a new identifier from scratch.

What GS1 Digital Link adds

GS1 Digital Link is a standard way of encoding a GTIN (and, for a DPP, a batch or serial number alongside it) as a structured web URL — something like /01/{gtin}/10/{serial} — instead of an arbitrary link. Encode that structure into a QR code, and any GS1-compliant scanner, not just your own app, can resolve it correctly.

Why that matters for a DPP specifically

• A retailer’s in-store scanner, a customs system, and a consumer’s phone camera can all resolve the same code correctly, without needing your specific app installed
• It’s the format the EU’s DPP framework is being built to expect, since it reuses an identification system already deployed at global scale
• It future-proofs the passport — if regulations or registries change how they query DPP data, a standards-based link is far easier to adapt than a proprietary one

What this looks like in practice

On EUDigiPass, every passport is generated with a GS1 Digital Link–structured QR code automatically — you provide the GTIN and batch/serial number, and the correctly formatted, standards-compliant link and QR code are generated for you. You don’t need to understand the underlying URL structure to use it correctly; you just need to know it’s there, and why it’s not something to bypass with a generic link shortener.