Foundations · 03 of 07
4 min read
How customers use it
Scanning a code in store is already an ordinary habit, not a new behaviour anyone has to be taught. What decides whether the scan is useful is what appears in the first three seconds.
The scan is a decision moment
People scan while holding the product, usually standing, often on a weak connection. So the passport shows the product first, with a photo, a name, and one line of composition, so the person scanning is sure the page is about the piece in their hand. The habit itself needs no teaching: since December 2023, EU wine rules have put ingredient and nutrition information behind a QR e-label on the bottle, and shoppers at consumer scale treat it as ordinary.
After the purchase, the need changes
A new owner comes for care and repair, not for supplier data. That is why the Life chapter is written by the brand itself: how to wash it, the expected wearing life, and what can be done when something tears. Aftercare is not a soft topic: WRAP's Valuing Our Clothes (2017) estimated that extending a garment's active life by nine months lowers its carbon, water, and waste footprints by a fifth to a third.
Resale raises its value
A passport that is still live makes a second-hand piece easier to trust: the composition is clear, the code is registered to the brand that published it, the repair history is on record. The wider numbers say why this matters: A New Textiles Economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017) found that the number of times a garment is worn had fallen by more than a third in fifteen years, and that less than 1 percent of the material in clothing is recycled into new clothing. A piece that stays in use, with a record that shows its evidence, works against both.
What the scan never does
Scanning is anonymous. A passport renders the product's history, never a person's: what accumulates comes from events someone chooses to record, a repair logged, a resale registered. Scan counts reach the brand only in aggregate, and we count them as scans, never as people, because one person scanning three times is three scans.
The essentials
- Product first, story second. The person scanning needs certainty within three seconds.
- The need changes after purchase: care and repair.
- A live passport can support resale value, regulation aside.
- Scans are counted as scans, never as people, and the page never renders a person's trail.
Primary sources
- Regulation (EU) 2021/2117: the EU wine e-label rules, applying from December 2023
- WRAP, Valuing Our Clothes (2017), a UK study of clothing use and its footprint
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A New Textiles Economy (2017)
Time-bound claims in this module are re-verified at every JRC milestone. Last checked 19 Aug 2026.
Where we stand
Mula is not affiliated with the European Commission, the JRC, or any certification body. We describe rules in our own words and cite the clause. Using Mula is not registration of anything, and nothing here is a statement about your product's legal standing.
Nothing here is stored in this tab. This article has its own address, so a bookmark brings you back to exactly this point tomorrow.