What the EU rules ask for, and what you can do about it now.
An explainer for a brand selling into Europe, or selling to somebody who does. It describes what each rule asks a record to hold, and what you can put in place this year. Readiness, not a countdown.
Supply chain data takes one to two years to establish. That is the real reason to start, and a better reason than a date on a calendar.
Where Mula stands in all of this
Mula prepares the record
Structured product data, component provenance, evidence with its tier, and a public address for the piece. That is the raw material every rule below asks for, in one place instead of six spreadsheets.
Mula does not certify, assess, or predict
No output here is an assessment, and none of it says what an authority or an auditor will decide. Using Mula is not an answer to any rule below. A record that answers the questions is.
The answer stays with the brand
Whoever places a product on the EU market is legally answerable for every data point on its passport, and a supplier's word is not a defence. That is why the evidence tier is attached to the claim rather than to the page.
Six rules, and what each one asks a record to hold
Named by their own names, with what they ask and what a brand can do about it. Dates belong to the rules and move when the rules move. Check them against the official text before you act on them.
ESPR
The EU ecodesign regulation for products
What it asks
A digital product passport for textiles, carrying a core dataset at a unique identifier that a reader can resolve.
When
Textile rules phased from the end of this decade, with the content specification still being written.
What it means for a record
Composition to the fibre percentage, recycled content at batch level, first-tier traceability, care and repair information, and substances of concern. Most of it is data a brand already touches and does not write down.
ECGT
Directive 2024/825, on consumer claims
What it asks
Bans generic environmental claims that cannot show proven performance, and bans offset-based climate-neutral labels.
When
Applies from 27 September 2026.
What it means for a record
A claim needs the fact underneath it, in the words of the fact. This is why nothing here renders an adjective where it could render a number or a named process instead.
EUDR
Regulation 2023/1115, on deforestation
What it asks
Due diligence for listed commodities, including the geolocation of the plot where the material was harvested.
When
From 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators, and for micro and small operators in timber; from 30 June 2027 for the rest.
What it means for a record
Relevant to wooden trims, buttons and accessories as much as to furniture. Mula supplies the provenance and documentation layer, and never generates, signs, or submits a due diligence statement.
Coût environnemental
Décret 2025-957, France
What it asks
An environmental cost figure for garments, calculated with the state tool and declared on a public portal.
When
From 1 October 2026 a third party may calculate and publish one for a brand that has not declared its own.
What it means for a record
Absent brand data, the defaults used are conservative and produce a worse result. Silence does not keep the topic quiet. It hands the topic to somebody else.
CSRD
Corporate sustainability reporting
What it asks
Large EU buyers report supply chain data, and the gap between a claim and its proof is their legal exposure.
When
Already here, commercially, whatever the reporting timetable does next.
What it means for a record
This is why a buyer asks a supplier in Central Java for structured data at all. The buyer pack exists to answer that pull in the shape the buyer asked for.
EPR
Producer responsibility for textiles
What it asks
National schemes with fee bands tied to recyclability, recycled content, and footprint.
When
Schemes operational by April 2028.
What it means for a record
This is where a mono-material choice and an elastane flag turn into money: a better designed product pays a lower fee. Recording the composition now is what makes that case later.
The passport arrives in three waves, not one
Knowing which wave a rule sits in is most of the reason not to panic about it.
Wave
From
What it asks
Where Mula stands
Minimal
Mid to late 2029
Core dataset: composition, design-option scores, recycled percentage, substances of concern, a unique identifier, first-tier traceability, care and repair. Industry averages accepted at first.
This is what the readiness score targets today. Fully in scope.
Advanced
2033
Product-specific lifecycle data, second-tier traceability, quantitative microfibre figures, and social and due diligence fields.
Horizon. The capture fields are being built early, because capture cannot be done retroactively and computation can.
Full circular
2036
Lifecycle tracking in real time, cross-border data exchange, secondary data markets.
Watched, not built. The per-piece identity model is the on-ramp when it matters.
Five things worth doing this year
None of them requires a rule to be final, and all of them are useful to a buyer today.
1
Write the composition down to the percentage
Fibre by fibre, per component, not just the main fabric. This one field feeds more of the core dataset than any other, and it is the field most often held only in somebody's memory.
2
Record where each component was made
At least to the region, for weaving or knitting, for finishing, and for assembly. The French figure asks for exactly these three, and a buyer pack answers faster when they are already written.
3
Name the workshop, with an attestation you hold
An attestation your brand records is evidence, and it costs nothing. It is also the only route by which a name reaches a public page, which is the point.
4
Keep batch records and the certificates you already have
Recycled content is a batch-level fact, not a product-level one, and a certificate is only useful with its type, its scope, and its validity attached.
5
Write care and end of life in plain words
How to wash it, how to repair it, and where it can go afterwards. It is a required field later and a useful page now, and it is the part a customer actually reads.
The limits of this page
Mula is not affiliated with the European Commission, the JRC, or any certification body.
Nothing here is legal advice, and nothing here says a product or a brand meets a rule. Those are decisions for authorities and their appointed bodies, and no platform can make them on anyone's behalf.
Dates and thresholds belong to the rules and move when the rules move. Check them against the official text before you act on them.
None of this starts with the rules.
It starts with writing down what your product is made of and who made it. That record answers the buyer this year and the rule later, and it is worth keeping even if neither ever asks.
