The Digital Product Regulatory Innovation Network (DPRIN) is a collaborative platform uniting regulators, industry experts, academics, and technology innovators to shape the future of product compliance and safety, primarily in the UK. DPRIN’s mission is to modernise regulation through innovation, testing new digital tools and data-driven approaches that make it easier for businesses to demonstrate compliance and for regulators to verify it efficiently. By encouraging open collaboration and practical experimentation, DPRIN helps bridge the gap between policy and technology. Its projects, such as developing digital compliance wallets and verifiable product credentials, aim to create safer marketplaces, enhance consumer trust, and reduce regulatory complexity.
AVPA’s Contribution
As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, especially in the online marketplace, there’s an increasing need to make compliance simple, transparent, and verifiable. We have been exploring how we can use verifiable digital credentials to demonstracte product safety and compliance when sold on online marketplaces, creating a digital wallet that securely holds verified credentials for products, sellers, and manufacturers. We explored how this system could help sellers prove their compliance with product regulations, whether selling age-restricted items, e-bikes, or any other regulated product. Instead of regulators manually checking every listing, they could simply look for relevant digital certificates of compliance.
Just like the digital wallets we use for tickets and payment cards, a compliance wallet can hold verifiable credentials, signed and sealed digital certificates that others can instantly trust. Traditionally, wallets are used for individuals, but we’ve taken that concept further to create corporate wallets for companies or sellers on platforms such as Amazon and eBay.
Each wallet contains verified information such as certificates of conformity, user safety documentation, and third-party testing results. These credentials are digitally signed using public and private keys, ensuring their authenticity. Each certificate can be self-issued by a manufacturer or issued by a third party, then verified and stored in the wallet.
The demonstration – powered by Truvera…
To test the idea, we created a minimum viable product (MVP) in collaboration with Dock Labs, using their Truvera platform. Our demonstration focused on the e-bike industry, which faces issues with non-compliant online sales.
We designed a workflow where sellers can check product requirements (via the CTSI’s Business Companion website), collect the necessary compliance certificates, and store them in their digital wallet. This includes the declaration of conformity, technical files, labeling evidence, and more.
So the first step is for the seller to check with the CTSI powered database what the compliance requirements are for any given product:
In the example we used, the seller needs to obtain some certificates from the manufacturer. So the factory will issue these certificates on the new platform:
Sellers have their own responsibilites, for example around product labelling and user instructions, so they can mint their own certificates on the system, linking to a signed and locked record.
Some requirements are dependent on third-parties, such as industry schemes. In the example below, the seller must be part of a battery recycling scheme so obtains a digital certificate to hold in their wallet to prove that. (it could equally be proof they are using a certified age verification solution with a verifiable credential issued by the provider of that technology.)
Once the seller has their verified credentials, they can connect their wallet directly to an online marketplace when listing a product. The platform checks the credentials before allowing the product to go live. Buyers can see proof of compliance immediately.
So this is a preemptive regulatory ecosystem: products can’t be listed for sale until they meet compliance standards, helping prevent unsafe items from reaching consumers in the first place.
For regulators, this creates a new level of visibility. Instead of contacting sellers directly, they can access the digital records through an auditor portal, viewing each credential, its validity, and even attached evidence files such as safety documentation or labeling photos.
This real-time traceability means regulators can focus their efforts on high-risk products while reducing administrative burden for compliant sellers.
This technology is already functioning on a live platform and could be rolled out for any high-risk product category. While similar in concept to the Digital Product Passport, our approach is decentralised, credentials are held and controlled by the sellers rather than stored in a central database, and are associated with specific products or batches of product, not just at the product model level.