Policymakers are continuing to make progress on the European Commission’s Proposal on Empowering consumers in the green transition (ECGT), proposed last year on 30 March 2022. Now that both the European Parliament and the Council of the EU have finalised their positions, both institutions have entered into trilogues negotiations to reach a final agreement, which should progress swiftly in the coming months.
The proposal, published by the Commission on 30 March 2022 as part of its Circular Economy Action Plan, is an important aspect of the European Union’s effort to promote sustainable consumption by ensuring that consumers are empowered and well-informed when it comes to making sustainable choices. The proposal focuses on how businesses communicate about their product’s durability, repairability, or environmental impact. By doing that, it will amend two significant consumer law directives: the Consumer Rights Directive (CRD) and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD). These are some of the most important provisions that the European Parliament will defend during the interinstitutional negotiations of the ECGT initiative.
Differences remain between the position of the two institutions, where compromise will have to be resolved or clarified, including for example the requirements that will apply to certification schemes, the conditions that will apply to environmental claims related to future performances and carbon off-setting, or the amendment to the list of banned commercial practices under the UCPD.
In general, Ecommerce Europe welcomes the changes made by both the Council and the EP on the responsibility of actors throughout the supply chain, making sure that sellers are not held responsible for information that was not provided by producers on environmental aspect of the product. Certain aspects under discussion remain concerning, for example the introduction by the EP of new requirements on “dark patterns” as amendments to the UCPD. As stated in previous position, we are concerned by the negotiations going beyond the scope of the original proposal to regulate aspect of consumer law which will be in the scope of the future Fitness check on digital fairness.
If you have any questions or wish to know more about the topic, please feel free to contact us at info@ecommerce-europe.eu.