ECODESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS : NEW EUROPEAN RULES

Starting with 2026, product placement on the EU market shall be subject to producing a digital passport to prove that minimum ecodesign requirements are met and providing information about the characteristics of the product, its repair, reuse and refurbishment, in compliance with the Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 published in the Official Gazette of the EU of June 28, 2024.

The European Regulation, in force from July 18, 2024, modifying the Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and the Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and repealing the Directive 2009/125/EC, comes with mandatory requirements for green public procurement and establishes a framework for preventing destruction of unsold products, including those not offered for sale or those returned by the consumers based on their withdrawal right.

Digital product passeport

In order enable the placing on the market of more sustainable products, the regulation introduces a digital product passport¹ , a digital ID for products, components, and materials, intended to foster access to relevant information. Such information shall be electronically accessible and enable consumers, manufacturers, and authorities to make informed choices.

The passport shall include information related to the technical performance, the origin of the materials, repair possibilities, recycling capacities and environmental impact of the life cycle of the product, and will have to meet the following requirements:

• be available prior to the sale and contain accurate, up to date and specific data for each product;
• be linked to a unique identifier of the product², available on the product or on the packaging, identifier to be provided by the economic operator placing the product on the market;
• allow access to the technical documentation, to the compliance documentation and other relevant data regarding the manufacturer, the distributor etc.;
• comply with the European and international norms and protect the security, the integrity, and the confidentiality of the data, without collecting personal data without consent.

Also, in order to avoid disproportionate costs for companies and the public, the digital product passports shall depend on the complexity of the value chain, the size, the nature or the impact of each product type, batch or model.

Furthermore, the said digital passport shall not be mandatory for certain products³  covered by other regulations on digital information.

To this end, the Commission shall have to establish by July 19, 2026, a registry of digital product passport in order to store the products’ unique identifiers.

In the case of products intended to be placed under the customs procedure « release for free circulation », the registry shall store the commodity code.

The interested parties (customers/consumers, economic operators, custom and surveillance authorities etc.) may access, via a web portal developed by the Commission, the data stored in the digital product passports and search and compare such data in accordance with their access rights, as specified in the delegate acts providing for ecodesign requirements.

Thus, according to the European legislation, key characteristics of sustainable products include:

• reducing energy consumption;
• longer lasting life;
• easier to repair;
• easily detachable and reusable parts;
• less hazardous substances;
• high degree of recycling;
• higher recycled content;
• reduced carbon footprint and impact on the environment during the whole life cycle.

Information and labelling requirements

The Regulation provides that labelling provisions apply in parallel with other regulations, such as the Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 on energy labelling. In some cases, the performance classes provided thereunder must be integrated on the energy label. If this is not possible, the Commission may impose a separate label.

The request for detailed and visible information on the labels is strictly regulated, including for online sales, being allowed to generate labels by using electronic means.

The labels must allow to easily compare the performance of the products and include access to additional data, such as the digital product passport. In order to incentivise consumers to make sustainable choices, the regulation allows the authorities to adopt mechanisms such as eco-vouchers and green taxation.

When the Member States decide to make use of incentives, they should do so by targeting products in the highest class of performance, but without banning the placing on the market of less performant products. Incentives shall not infringe state-aid EU norms.

For energy-related products or for tyres, labelling requirements under other EU regulations, such as Regulation (EU) 2020/740, prevail to those set under this Regulation.

Disposal of unsold consumer products

The regulation introduces rules regarding the disposal / destruction of unsold consumer products.

Thus, the economic operators shall communicate on their website:

• (a) the number of unsold consumer products discarded each year and their weight, differentiated by type or category of products;
• (b) the reasons for products disposal;
• (c) the proportion of discarded products delivered, whether directly or through a third party, to undergo each of the following activities: preparing for reuse, including refurbishment and remanufacturing, recycling, other recovery including energy recovery, and disposal operations in accordance with the waste hierarchy as defined by Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC;
• (d) measures taken and measures planned for the purpose of preventing the destruction of unsold consumer products.

In the case of SME, this measure shall become mandatory starting with July 19, 2030. The first act of enforcement of this kind shall be adopted by the Commission until July 19, 2025.

Starting with July 19, 2026 (July 19, 2030, for SME), the destruction of unsold consumer products listed in the Annex VII of the Regulation shall be banned. Among these products there are articles of apparel and clothing accessories, of leather or composition leather, knitted or made of different other material and shoes.

Green public procurement

Public procurement amounts to 14 % of the Union’s GDP. To contribute to the objective of reaching climate neutrality and transitioning to a circular economy, the Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 highlights the need for stricter measures to foster green public procurement.

Article 65 of the regulation provides that the Commission is empowered to set, by means of implementing acts, the minimum requirements that the contracting authorities and the contracting entities have to integrate in the contracts of values surpassing the thresholds defined under the European legislation.

Such implementing acts may target only one or several groups of products that the Commission shall have priory identified under a delegate act and are mainly based on the performance classes established under the said act.

Thus, the minimum requirements may be in the form of technical specifications, award criteria, contract performance conditions or targets. In this context, an award criterion related to the ecodesign regulation should have a weighing of between 15 % and 30 % in the awarding process.

Targets shall require, on an annual or multiannual basis, a minimum percentage of 50 % of procurement conducted at the level of contracting authorities or contracting entities, or at an aggregated national level, of the most environmentally sustainable products.

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The Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 shall be followed progressively by rules for specific groups of products. The process shall start with a prioritising exercise, followed by a working plan describing the products and the measures to be approved. Developing such rules will include planning, detailed impact assessment and regular consultation between the European authorities and the interested parties.

Notes 

1. Digital product passport means a set of data specific to a product which includes the information provided in the applicable delegate act and which can be accessed electronically.
2. Unique product identifier means a unique string of characters for the identification of a product and accessing a link to the digital product passport.
3. Specific exceptions from the ecodesign requirements should be provided when they do not enhance the sustainability of some products, such as the products intended for special use or purposes, products manufactured in small quantities or products regulated under other adequate legislative frameworks. The regulation does not apply to food and feed products, medicinal products, veterinary medicinal products, products of plants or animals and vehicles covered by other EU Regulations. Nevertheless, e-bikes and e-scooters are not excluded from the scope of the Regulation.