New step towards sustainability, new requirements for products

The European Parliament and the Council adopted the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) on 13 June 2024. The act - entered into force on 18 July 2024 - is an important new piece of the package of measures set out by the EU in order to achieve the goals of the European Green Deal (2019), in particular those of the Circular Economy Action Plan (2020). ESPR replaced the Ecodesign Directive of 2009 that had been applied only to energy-related products. The ESPR establishes the legal institutions of digital product passport and green public procurement, it imposes obligations in connection with the destruction of unsold consumer products and it provides a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products.

The ESPR entitles the European Commission to adopt delegated acts on ecodesign requirements for a period of 5 years, however, the delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension. During that period the Commission may impose obligatory requirements that ensure the environmentally responsible design of certain products (ecodesign requirements). Almost any product may be the subject matter of such delegated act adopted by the Commission, except certain food, feed, medicinal products, living plants, animals and micro-organisms, products of human origin, products of plants and animals relating directly to their future reproduction and certain vehicles.

If a product does not comply with the applicable requirements, it cannot be placed on the market or put into service. Therefore, in order to provide economic operators with sufficient time to comply with the ecodesign requirements, in principle a delegated act shall be applicable after at least 18 months from its entrance into force. Ecodesign requirements should improve the following product aspects (if those aspects are relevant to the given product group): durability; reliability; reusability; upgradability; repairability; the possibility of maintenance and refurbishment; the presence of substances of concern; energy use and energy efficiency; water use and water efficiency; resource use and resource efficiency; recycled content; the possibility of remanufacturing; recyclability; the possibility of the recovery of materials; environmental impacts (including carbon footprint and environmental footprint); expected generation of waste. Ecodesign requirements should not have either significant negative impact on the functionality of the product from the perspective of the user or adverse effect on the health and safety of persons, and they shall not have any significant negative impact on consumers in terms of affordability. Furthermore, they shall neither have a negative impact on the competitiveness of economic operators including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), nor oblige manufacturers or other actors in the value chain to use any proprietary technology. Ecodesign requirements shall not impose any disproportionate administrative burden on manufacturers or other actors in the value chain and they should be verifiable. A product subject to ecodesign requirements should have a Digital Product Passport (DPP), otherwise, it cannot be placed on the market or put into service.

The ESPR contains new rules on the destruction of unsold consumer products: economic operators shall take necessary measures which can reasonably be expected to prevent the need to destroy unsold consumer products, moreover, it is prohibited to destroy them. Those economic operators that discard unsold consumer products should disclose a wide range of information, e.g. the number and weight of unsold consumer products discarded per year and the reasons for discarding products. However, in case of SMEs, these rules shall be only partially applicable.