The European Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the EU’s new ecodesign regulation. The new directive will replace existing legislation from 2009 and allows the EU to set performance and disclosure requirements for all goods on the EU market (except vehicles which are governed by a separate directive). The European Council stated in their press release announcing the provisional agreement:
“The new proposal, presented by the Commission on 30th March 2022, builds on the existing Ecodesign Directive, but propose new requirements such as product durability, reusability, upgradability, and reparability, presence of substances that inhibit circularity; energy and resource efficiency; recycled content, remanufacturing, and recycling; carbon and environmental footprints and information requirements, including a Digital Product Passport”
To combat the environmental harms of the fast fashion industry, the directive would ban the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear with an exemption for small and micro companies. The directive will also empower the Commission to use delegated acts to introduce new standards for product design on an as-needed basis. It will be left to member states to determine penalties to apply to companies violating the directive. This adds another piece to the EU’s Green Deal aimed at consumer products alongside the Green Claims Act and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
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