Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Studies have demonstrated that European consumers take the environmental impact into account when purchasing a product. They are ready to pay more for more sustainable products. Market operators reflect such trends. Consumers are though often mislead by different claims related to environmental performance of goods and services. The Rapporteur therefore welcomes the European Commission proposal to regulate the market to ensure true and easily accessible sustainability information.

The Rapporteur proposes though measures to further strengthen the proposal. The Rapporteur suggest to better regulate sustainability labels and sustainability information tools, as well as environmental claims. The Rapporteur introduces an obligation for pre-approval of sustainability labels and sustainability information tools by a competent national authority in line with a framework to be set by the Commission through implementing and delegated acts.

On the environmental claims, the Rapporteur proposes to ban future environmental claims based solely on carbon offsetting schemes, since such schemes are unregulated and cannot be verified by consumers. Other future environmental claims must be adequately substantiated by a feasible implementation plan and verifiable targets, and backed by sufficient budget and resources. Those plans must be publicly available, regularly updated and monitored by an independent body. The Rapporteur considers that claims related to future environmental performance should not be used on the product level as they can mislead the consumer on the current environmental performance of the products in question. Additionally, the Rapporteur sets a ban on claims that state that a good has a neutral or positive greenhouse gas emissions’ impact on the environment as that is impossible to achieve from the scientific point of view.

Furthermore, more than 80 percent of EU consumers are interested in the durability of products. They experience though difficulties in finding relevant information. The Rapporteur therefore proposes to introduce a guaranteed lifespan label that reflects both, the minimum period the consumer is covered by a free legal guarantee of two years as well as an indication of the lifespan of the products. The producers and traders can prolong this guarantee beyond two years, but they can indicate it on a label only if it is without additional cost for the consumer and if it applies to the whole product.

To achieve a truly sustainable economy, it is crucial to encourage the repair of products. Consumers should therefore be informed before the purchase of a product on the availability and affordability of spare parts necessary to repair it, including the length of the period during which spare parts and accessories are available, the procedure of ordering them, about the availability of a user and repair manual and repair tools and services. The Rapporteur suggest to ban the marketing of goods which do not allow repair in accordance with legal requirements.

The Rapporteur believes that a complete ban on all forms of premature obsolescence should be imposed, ranging from software features that limit the durability of products and stimulate the purchase of a new product to hardware features introduced with a similar purpose.

In other to make it easier for consumers to take informed decisions about software updates and contribute to the durability of their products, the Rapporteur proposes to unbundle security updates that are necessary for the functioning of the device from other types of updates. All updates that negatively impact the device should be banned. Furthermore, consumers should be informed in a clear and understandable manner if an update is necessary to keep the product in conformity.