Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Added(b) the power to require any natural or legal person to provide any relevant information, data or documents, in any form or format and irrespective of their storage medium or the place where they are stored, for the purposes of establishing whether an infringement of this Directive has occurred or is occurring and the details of such infringement;

Added(c) the power to start investigations or proceedings on their own initiative to bring about the cessation or prohibition of infringements of this Directive;

Added(d) the power to require traders to adopt adequate and effective remedies and take appropriate action to bring an infringement of this Directive to an end;

Added(e) the power to adopt, where appropriate, injunctive relief with regard to infringements of this Directive;

Added(f) the power to impose penalties for infringements of this Directive in accordance with Article 17.

Added3. Competent authorities may use any information, document, finding, statement or intelligence as evidence for the purpose of their investigations, irrespective of the format in which or medium on which they are stored.

AddedArticle 15 Compliance monitoring measures

Added1. Competent authorities of the Member States designated in accordance with Article 13 shall undertake regular checks of the explicit environmental claims made and the environmental labelling schemes applied, on the Union market. The reports detailing the result of those checks shall be made available to the public online.

Added2. Where the competent authorities of a Member State detect an infringement of an obligation set out in this Directive, they shall carry out an evaluation covering all relevant requirements laid down in this Directive.

Added3. Where, further to the evaluation referred to in the first subparagraph, the competent authorities find that the substantiation and communication of the explicit environmental claim or the environmental labelling scheme does not comply with the requirements laid down in this Directive, they shall notify the trader making the claim about the non-compliance prior to publishing the report referred to in Article 15(1) and require that trader to take all appropriate corrective action within 30 days to bring the explicit environmental claim or the environmental labelling scheme into compliance with this Directive or within 30 days, to cease the use of and references to the non-compliant explicit environmental claim. Such action shall be as effective and rapid as possible, while complying with the principle of proportionality and the right to be heard.

AddedThe competent authorities may decide upon a duly justified request from the trader, in exceptional cases, to grant the trader one extension to the original 30 days, during which the trader will be required to take all appropriate corrective action. [Am. 132]

Added3a. Where the competent authorities of a Member State establish that an explicit environmental claim or an environmental labelling scheme does not comply with the requirements laid down in this Directive, it shall require the trader to disclose, without undue delay, if the explicit environmental claim or the environmental labelling scheme has been communicated in another Member State. Where this is the case, the competent authorities who established the non-compliance shall notify without undue delay the competent authorities of the other Member States where the claim or label have been communicated of the result of the evaluation pursuant to Article 15(3). [Am. 133]

Added3b. Where the competent authorities of a Member State establish that verifiers have repeatedly issued certificates of conformity for explicit environmental claims that do not comply with the requirements laid down in this Directive, the verifier's accreditation shall be withdrawn without undue delay. [Am. 134]

AddedArticle 16 Complaint-handling and access to justice

Added1. Natural or legal persons or organisations regarded under Union or national law as having a legitimatesufficient interest shall be entitled to submit substantiated complaints to competent authorities when they deem, on the basis of objective circumstances, that a traderone or more traders or verifiers is failing to comply with the provisions of this Directive. [Am. 135]

Added2. For the purposes of the first subparagraph, non-governmental entities or organisations promoting human health, environmental or consumer protection and meeting any requirements under national law shall be deemed to have sufficient interest.

Added3. Competent authorities shall without undue delay assess the substantiated complaint referred to in paragraph 1 and, where necessary, take the necessary steps, including inspections and hearings of the person or organisation and traders or verifiers concerned, with a view to verifydetecting non-compliance with the provisions of this Directive and verifying those complaints. If confirmed, the competent authorities shall take the necessary actions in accordance with Article 15. [Am. 136]

Added4. Competent authorities shall, as soon as possible and in any case within 30 days from receiving the substantiated concern and in accordance with the relevant provisions of national law, inform the person or organisation referred to in paragraph 1 that submitted the complaint of its decision to accede to or refuse the request for action put forward in the complaint and shall provide the reasons for it and a description of the further steps and measures it will take. Competent authorities shall allow for additional information to be provided by the person who has submitted the concern. [Am. 137]

Added5. Member States shall ensure that a person or organisation referred to in paragraph 1 submitting a substantiated complaint shall have access to a court or other independent and impartial public body competent to review the procedural and substantive legality of the decisions, acts or failure to act of the competent authority under this Directive, without prejudice to any provisions of national law which require that administrative review procedures be exhausted prior to recourse to judicial proceedings. Those judicial review procedures shall be fair, equitable, timely and free of charge or not prohibitively expensive, and shall provide adequate and effective remedies, including injunctive relief where necessary.

Added6. Member States shall ensure that practical information is made available to the public free of charge in an easily accessible and understandable manner on access to the administrative and judicial review procedures referred to in this Article. [Am. 138]

AddedArticle 17 Penalties

Added1. Without prejudice to the obligations of Member States under Directive 2008/99/EC40, Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties provided for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

Added2. When determining the type and level of penalties to be imposed in case of infringements, the competent authorities of the Member States shall give due regard to the following:

Added(a) the nature, gravity, extent and duration of the infringement;

Added(b) the intentional or negligent character of the infringement and any action taken by the trader to mitigate or remedy the damage suffered by consumers, where applicable;

Added(c) the financial strength of the natural or legal person held responsible, as indicated for example by the total turnover of the legal person held responsible or the annual income of the natural person held responsible;

Added(d) the economic benefits derived from the infringement by those responsible;

Added(e) any previous infringements by the natural or legal person held responsible;

Added(f) any other aggravating or mitigating factor applicable to the circumstances of the case;

Added(g) penalties imposed on the trader for the same infringement in other Member States in cross-border cases where information about such penalties is available through the mechanism established by Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, where applicable.

Added3. Member States shall provide that penalties and measures for infringements of this Directive shall include:

Added(a) fines which effectively deprive those responsible of the economic benefits derived from their infringements, and increasing the level of such fines for repeated infringements;

Added(b) confiscation of revenues gained by the trader from a transaction with the relevant products concerned;

Added(c) temporary exclusion for a maximum period of 12 months from public procurement processes and from access to public funding, including tendering procedures, grants and concessions.

AddedFor the purposes of point (a), Member States shall ensure that when penalties are to be imposed in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, the maximum amount of such fines being at least at 4 % of the trader’s annual turnover in the Member State or Member States concerned.

AddedArticle 18 Exercise of the delegation

Added1. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.

Added2. The power to adopt delegated acts as referred to in Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from [OP please insert the date = the date of transposition of this Directive]. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period.

Added3. The delegation of power referred to in Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

Added4. Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making.

Added5. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 3(4) and Article 5(8) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or by the Council within a period of [two months] of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by [two months] at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.

AddedArticle 18a Consultation forum

AddedThe Commission shall establish a green claims consultation forum (the Forum) involving balanced participation of Member States’ representatives and all relevant interested parties, such as industry representatives, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and craft industry representatives, trade unions, traders, retailers, importers, academic researchers, environmental protection groups and consumer organisations. The Commission shall consult the forum on the following:

Added(i) the establishment of the working plans referred to in Article 3(4a);

Added(ii) the development of delegated acts;

Added(iii) update to the requirements for the substantiation and communication of environmental claims;

Added(iv) any evaluation of the requirements for the substantiation and communication of environmental claims;

Added(v) any evaluation of the effectiveness of the existing requirements for the substantiation and communication of environmental claims. [Am. 139]

AddedArticle 19 Committee procedure

Added1. The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

Added2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5(4), third subparagraph, of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

AddedArticle 20 Monitoring

Added1. Member States shall regularly monitor the application of this Directive based on:

Added(a) an overview of the types of explicit environmental claims and of environmental labelling schemes which have been subject to substantiated complaints in accordance with Article 16;

Added(b) an overview of explicit environmental claims and of environmental labelling schemes with regard to which competent authorities have required the trader to take corrective action, in accordance with Article 15, or have imposed penalties in accordance with Article 17.

Added2. The information referred to in paragraph 1 shall specify the explicit environmental claim or environmental labelling scheme, the nature of the alleged infringement, the nature and duration of the corrective action and, if applicable, the penalty imposed.

Added3. Member States shall provide the information referred to in paragraph 1 to the Commission on an annual basis.

Added3a. National competent authorities shall actively collaborate and regularly exchange best practices regarding the implementation of this Directive. [Am. 140]

Added4. Based on the information collected pursuant to paragraph 3 and the information made available by the Member States pursuant to Article 15(1), and, if necessary, additional consultations with competent authorities, the European Environmental Agency shall publish, every two years, a report containing an assessment of the evolution of explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in each Member State and for the Union as a whole. The report shall enable a differentiation according to the size of the trader making the claim and according to the quality of the substantiation.

AddedArticle 21 Evaluation and review