Background

Guided by the overarching goal of a climate-neutral circular economy at least by 2050, the EU has already adopted several pieces of legislation, most recently under its Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan, covering specific product types (e.g. the new Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542) as well as establishing new legal opportunities and burdens (e.g. by the upcoming Right-to-Repair Directive (EU) 2024/1799, the Tyre Labelling Regulation (EU) 2020/740). More generally and broadly, the ESPR aims to help the EU double the rate of circularity of materials in use and meet its energy efficiency targets by 2030. The ESPR does this by addressing the potential environmental impacts of different physical goods and their production conditions.

To this end, the ESPR is designed as a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for different product groups by allowing concrete product rules to be adopted gradually for each individual type of good or horizontally on the basis of product groups with similar characteristics.

In the ESPR, the approach developed in the previous ED (which will be fully replaced by the ESPR by 2030) will now be applied to a much wider range of products allowing a wide range of targeted ecodesign standards to be set. Products shall not only more energy and resource efficient, but also more durable, reliable, reusable, upgradable, repairable, recyclable and easier to maintain.

Covered products

With only a few exceptions, the ESPR will apply to almost all types of products placed on the EU market, including product components and intermediate products. Covered products will include consumer electronics, household appliances, commercial machinery, toys, furniture and textiles. The few product categories that are not covered include food, feed, medicinal products as well as living plants, animals, its products and products of human origin. At the very least, products whose sole purpose is to serve defense and national security will not be subject to the ecodesign requirements of the ESPR. In addition, motor vehicles are excluded from the scope to the extent that they are already covered by other EU legislation (e.g. the harmonized EU type-approval framework).

Under the ESPR, the EU Commission will introduce the new ecodesign requirements through delegated acts, gradually covering different products and product groups. The initial focus will be on environmentally impactful products including iron and steel, aluminum, textiles, furniture, tyres, detergents, paints, lubricants, chemicals, certain energy-related products as well as information and communication technology products and other electronics. New product categories will be defined in the coming years. According to the EU Commission’s Working Plan, these may include further automotive and mobility equipment such as electric vehicle chargers.

Relation to other legislation

The broad scope of the proposed new ecodesign framework raises questions about potential overlaps and interactions with existing product-specific legislation as well as legislation addressing horizontal ecodesign aspects for a wide range of products.

• Existing product-specific legislation that already contains certain ecodesign requirements for specific product groups include the new Battery Regulation, the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive, the Tyre Labelling Regulation and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.
• Legislation that already addresses certain horizontal ecodesign aspects for a wide range of products includes in particular EU chemicals and waste legislation (e.g. the Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (“REACH”), the Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (“RoHS”) and the Regulation on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of chemicals (“CLP”)) as well as Energy Labelling Legislation (e.g. the Energy Labelling Framework Regulation).

In general, consistency between the ESPR and requirements set out in other Union legislation should be ensured by the EU Commission. Therefore, the EU Commission is expected to assess any potential overlap or conflict with existing legislation when setting the concrete requirements in the product-specific deleted acts. However, other EU legislation setting similar requirements or having similar effects does not, in principle, limit the scope of the ESPR.

What’s next?

Following its entry into force, to implement the ESPR, the European Commission will adopt and regularly update working plans with lists of products and measures to be assessed, after consulting the Ecodesign Forum, a newly established public body of experts and stakeholders. The Ecodesign Forum is expected to hold its first meeting in the fourth quarter of 2024.

In its first working plan, to be adopted and published within nine months of the entry into force of the ESPR, the Commission is likely to give priority to iron and steel, aluminum, textiles (clothing and footwear), furniture (including mattresses), tires, detergents, paints, lubricants, chemicals, energy-related products (including new and revised measures) and ICT and other electronic products. For some products, such as textiles or steel, preparatory work has already started.

The first measures on the destruction of unsold consumer goods will also be adopted within the first year after the entry into force of the ESPR. At the same time, the implementation of the mandatory Digital Product Passport will begin, including the adoption of rules for the required identifiers and data carriers, work on access rights to DPP information and the establishment of a DPP register and web portal.

Undoubtedly, the new and ambitious ecodesign framework under the ESPR will have a significant impact on many more industries than the ED, including the automotive and mobility sectors. Our advice is to start preparing for the new requirements as soon as possible.

For our recent Engage article dealing with the ESPR Commission proposal, click here.

The authors would like to thank Fabio Stark, currently working as a trainee at Hogan Lovells, for his research in connection with the preparation of this article.