State of play, main conclusions, outlook

With its proposal for an Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the Commission aims to improve the sustainability of products on the European market. The proposal would revise the Ecodesign Directive¹, which currently covers energy-related products only. The proposed revision reinforces its provisions through expanding the products within its scope and increasing the range of tools for improving the sustainability of products placed on the EU market. Given the wide range of products that could potentially be targeted, most specific product rules will be laid down in a second stage, via delegated acts. This will be supported by impact assessments and stakeholder consultation, and underpinned by a prioritisation exercise that will identify the order in which to tackle the different products.

The Commission’s proposal is currently under negotiation with the Council and European Parliament.

Estimated savings and benefits

In terms of the overall regulatory burden, the financial costs and benefits of the overall package will depend on the delegated acts that follow and the outcome of the legislative procedure. The experience from the Ecodesign Directive until now is positive, with estimated overall annual benefits being a multiple of the annual costs. Overall, there are higher costs for business from applying the requirements and these translate into upfront costs for citizens that are expected to be more than offset over time by the savings in energy and consumables.

The preferred option identified by the impact assessment prepared by the Commission includes simplification measures. This will allow for example for streamlining of the procedures for the development and adoption of Ecodesign implementing regulations (changes in sequencing; ensuring information is collected efficiently; etc.). The preferred policy option ensures that the structures put in place allow for efficient implementation, market surveillance and enforcement.

This preferred option also makes maximum use of the potential of digitalisation to ensure efficient application. In particular, the use of a digital product passport will allow for efficient delivery of its objectives by ensuring that information failures are corrected by passing the right information downstream in a way that can be understood and accessed. Digital measures will facilitate efficient implementation and enforcement, for example, including making relevant product information digitally available to market surveillance authorities (MSAs) and possibly Customs authorities.

It was not possible to quantify the savings as they will depend on the number and type of products covered and their improvement potential, and will be calculated in the context of the impact assessments accompanying the future delegated acts.

Fit for Future Platform

The Fit for Future Platform adopted its opinion on the Ecodesign directive, in November 2021. The opinion includes nine suggestions to simplify, modernise and reduce potential burdens in product legislation mainly by avoiding duplication of regulations or inconsistencies and keeping the Ecodesign legislative framework focused, and taking into account the feasibility of application:

• Suggestion 1: To ensure clarity and simplification of the new legislation, the reformed Eco-design Directive initially should include principles specific to products where changes in design may bring benefits in short time, in particular end-use products. However, an expansion of its scope with sense of proportion should be envisaged too.

• Suggestion 2: Simple legislation: The Eco-design Directive should continue to concentrate on key aspects of the environmental performance of end-use products: energy efficiency, resource efficiency, extending their lifespan (including reparability) and recyclability; all requirements should be proportionate to the complexity of a product

• Suggestion 3: Ensuring overall coherence to be effective and fully implemented

• Suggestion 4: Modern information requirements should be clear, comprehensible and comparable for consumers, in particular: Ø Any potential requirement to supply the information on sustainability in an electronic form must not thwart the access to essential information for consumers, including the provision of information in a traditional way; Ø Digital Product Passport should be based on an open network in accordance with the principles of the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility for the eDelivery network.

• Suggestion 5: Ensuring legal certainty and make legislation easy to apply: Ø Essential and duly justified interests of manufacturers must be safeguarded with regard to measures aimed at expanding the lifespan and recyclability of products; Ø The duty to share proprietary information with other market actors must be accompanied with clear rules in the area of the intellectual property law and the competition law.

• Suggestion 6: Access to information and standardisation as a tool to reduce burden while extending lifespan of products (e.g. quality, durability, reparability and recyclability)

• Suggestion 7: Software and firmware -dependent products and planned obsolescence: a novel way to adapt to technological progress while considering environmental impact

• Suggestion 8: Appropriate and proportionate transition periods should be envisaged in any new legislation within the framework of the Eco-design Directive

• Suggestion 9: Further measures for SMEs

The Commission’s proposal builds on the success of the Ecodesign Directive, through an expansion of the scope of products and possible requirements covered. In terms of the expansion of the scope, this only creates the possibility for action, but the decisions on which products to regulate will take place on the basis of clear criteria and a working plan, thus enabling prioritization of the most important categories and making the framework flexible and futureproof at the same time. This is in line with the Platform’s suggestion that it should at first cover a selected group of products identified by virtue of their relevant environmental impact and potential for reducing their environmental impact through changes in design. The actual sustainability requirements that will be proposed will be assessed for each product on the basis of the potential benefits that can be achieved and their costs. This ensures that requirements are proportionate, which is an aspect that the Platform has raised.

The Commission’s proposal allows for enhanced sustainability requirements including those noted in the Platform’s opinion in suggestion 2. Secondary legislation will consider the value-added of different measures both on a product basis and of a horizontal nature and will be proportionate, as justified by impact assessments. The main objectives of the proposal are to reduce the negative life cycle environmental impacts of products and improve the functioning of the internal market. It does so by laying down a framework for setting ecodesign requirements based on sustainability and circularity aspects, such as product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability, the presence of substances of concern in products, product energy and resource efficiency, recycled content of products, product remanufacturing and high-quality recycling, and for reducing products’ carbon and environmental footprints. Those requirements may apply to one specific product group or horizontally to more product groups, where technical similarities allow for the setting of common requirements.

Regarding suggestion 3, coherence is considered in-depth in the impact assessment accompanying the proposal. This includes relationships to consumer empowerment, construction products, due diligence rules etc. For example, there is analysis of the implications for market surveillance in the Member States, which deals with multiple issues and so needs coherence.

The aspects raised by the Platform in suggestion 4 were considered in the impact assessment accompanying the proposal. The revised horizontal framework legislation will introduce the European Digital Product Passport and the main objectives and principles. The operational details and IT infrastructure design will be developed through secondary legislation (and associated impact assessment), in close collaboration with stakeholders and also building on the results of a number of pilot projects currently funded under the Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes. The more specific suggestions of the Platform will be considered at this stage, as relevant. The content of each EU Digital Product Passport will be decided when developing product-specific measures, with the objective of only requiring the most relevant information, additional to what is already requested though existing legislations. To ensure that the Digital Product Passport is flexible, market-driven and evolving in line with business models, markets and innovation, it will be based on a decentralised data system, set up and maintained by economic operators. The EU Digital Product Passport will be used for sustainability aspects of products where relevant and, when relevant and technically feasible, also as a tracking & tracing tool to bring transparency along the value chains and facilitate the role of enforcement authorities.

With regards to labels, the proposed Regulation specifies the requirements that can be attached to labels, when they are used for a given product group. In such cases, delegated acts must specify the label’s content (including classes of performance) and layout, and how they are to be displayed to consumers. If the product is already covered by a label as provided for in the Energy Labelling Regulation (EU) 2017/1369, and the information on other parameters, including on other classes of performance, cannot be included in it, that information might be included in a separate label if the Commission finds it appropriate.

Some SMEs noted possible concerns over negative impacts, while many also expressed the belief that these can be offset and bring added value over time (due to reduced material expenditure, increased customer loyalty, better access to the market for greener products, reputational benefits etc.). The Commission has looked specifically at ways to mitigate the negative impacts on SMEs, and will continue to do so for the following secondary legislation.

When it comes to suggestion 5, it should be noted that the impact assessment looked into the implementability of the legislation and the roles of all the different actors including manufacturers. The proposal creates a level playing field for businesses operating on the internal market. The harmonised requirements are likely to reduce overall compliance costs, given that they are likely to replace multiple existing or planned requirements at national level. Consideration is given to the need to protect confidential business information.

Suggestion 6 regarding access to information both as a means to reduce burden but also empower the consumers, is addressed within the framework of the proposal. The potential to enhance access to information is considered in the proposal and will be addressed on a product-by-product basis in the following measures, which will be justified by dedicated impact assessments. The proposed regulation will take targeted action, tailored to specific product/product value chain needs or problems. It will complement and concretely reinforce horizontal initiatives that also deal with information and reparability etc.

This regulation is part of several initiatives presented by the Commission aimed at making sustainable products the norm. The package includes an initiative to empower the consumers in the green transition, through better protection against unfair practices and better information. For this initiative, the Commission considered the problem that it is still too difficult for economic operators and citizens to make sustainable choices given that relevant information and affordable options to do so are lacking. The proposed rules and requirements would nudge consumers towards more environmentally friendly purchases, by correcting market failures. Furthermore, they will restrict choices by introducing minimum requirements for specific products on for instance the carbon and environmental footprints or minimum requirements on the aspects that affect the lifetime of a product such as reparability.

As regards the Platform’s suggestion 7 on the issue of planned obsolescence, this will be considered and inform the future developing of product-specific requirements.

When it comes to suggestion 8, the product specific acts should be implemented in a similar way as the current Ecodesign directive, with

• a primary legal act defining the framework for the application of sustainability requirements to products in the scope of the legislation, allowing their placing on the EU internal market,

• delegated acts, adopted by the Commission on the basis of the objectives and criteria defined in the legal act, and adopted in accordance with the procedure set out in the primary legal act, for specific products or groups of products sharing common characteristics.

The actual impact of the proposed regulation should materialise when these measures enter into force, after dedicated impact assessments, consultations and adoption procedures. This will allow for proportionate transition periods and enable manufacturers to adapt without exposing them to excessive costs and within a reasonable timeframe, as well as reflecting the timing needs of consumers and market surveillance authorities.

Concerning suggestion 9, the consultation activities carried out in the context of the impact assessment provided useful indications of the expected impact of future requirements on SMEs, as well as the type of support needed to help alleviate any potentially negative impact on these businesses. The impact assessments for the future specific measures will reflect this and examine whether the impacts for SMEs are proportionate, and the possibility of accompanying the measure with mitigating measures. As a result, impacts are expected to remain proportionate for SMEs, with any impacts offset over time by benefits.

¹ Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products