Council of the EU and European Parliament reach agreement on ecodesign rules

Article summary

The Council of the EU and the European Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on the revision of EU’s ecodesign framework for sustainable products. The new regulation, which would replace the existing Directive (EC) 2009/125 (the Ecodesign Directive), seeks to expand the scope of the current rules and make a larger variety of products more durable and reliable, as well as easier to repair, upgrade, reuse and recycle. Under the legislation, ‘Digital Product Passports’, which will set out information about the product’s sustainability, will enable consumers to make informed choices when purchasing the products, while operators who destroy their unsold goods will be required to report annually on the quantities that have been discarded and the reasons why. The destruction of unsold clothing by large companies will also be banned completely two years after the new regulation comes into force, with medium-sized enterprises having six years to comply with this rule.