What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

10 unchanged paragraphs

on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for setting eco-design requirements for sustainable products and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC

(COM(2022)0142 – C90132/2022 – 2022/0095(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2022)0142),

– having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C90132/2022),

– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 14 July 2022,

– having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy,

Changed:– having regard to the report of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (A90000/2022),(A9-0218/2023),

1. Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

2. Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Change 1

Removed:Recital 5: (5) This Regulation will contribute to making products fit for a climate-neutral, resource-efficient and circular economy, reducing waste and ensuring that the performance of frontrunners in sustainability progressively becomes the norm. It should provide for the setting of new ecodesign requirements to address products' premature obsolescence, to improve product durability, reusability, upgradability, reparability and recyclability, improve possibilities for refurbishment and maintenance, address the presence of hazardous chemicals in products, increase their energy and resource efficiency, reduce their expected generation of waste materials and increase recycled content in products, while ensuring their performance and safety, enabling remanufacturing and high-quality recycling and reducing carbon and environmental footprints. Those new ecodesign requirements should also improve the social sustainability of products and take into consideration due diligence aspects. By doing so, this Regulation should aim to support production and consumption patterns that are aligned with the Union’s overall sustainability targets, including climate, environmental, energy, resources-use and biodiversity, while staying within planetary boundaries.

Added:Recital 1: (1) The European Green Deal25 is Europe’s sustainable growth strategy that aims to transform the Union into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, competitive, climate-neutral and circular economy and toxic-free environment. It sets the ambitious objective of ensuring that the Union becomes the first climate neutral continent by 2050. It recognises the advantages of investing in the Union’s competitive sustainability by building a fairer, greener and more digital Europe. Products have a pivotal role to play in this green transition. Underlining that current production processes and consumption patterns remain too linear and dependent on a throughput of new materials extracted, traded and processed goods and finally disposed of as waste or emissions, the European Green Deal emphasises the urgent need to transition to a circular economy model and stresses the significant progress that remains to be made. It also identifies energy efficiency as a priority for the decarbonisation of the energy sector and for reaching the climate objectives in 2030 and 2050.

Change 2

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Change 3

Removed:Recital 10: (10) Directive 2009/125/EC has been generally successful in fostering the energy efficiency and some circularity aspects of energy-related products, and its approach has the potential to progressively address the sustainability of all products. To deliver on Green Deal commitments, this approach should be extended to other product groups and systematically address key aspects for increasing the environmental sustainability of products as well as their social sustainability with binding requirements. By ensuring that only products that meet those requirements are placed on the Union market, this Regulation should not only improve the free movement of such products by avoiding national disparities, but also reduce the negative life cycle environmental impacts of products for which such requirements are set.

Added:Recital 3 a (new): (3a) Secure and sufficient availability of critical raw materials is key for a successful European twin transition while ensuring a competitive European industry. It is important that comprehensive information requirements on materials, including on critical raw materials, on products placed on the Union market be laid down in order to deliver on the approach outlined in the communication of the Commission of 3 September 2020 on Critical Raw Materials Resilience: Charting a Path towards greater Security and Sustainability 1a and the resolution of the European Parliament of 24 November 2021 on a European strategy for critical raw materials 1b. / 1a Commission communication of 3 September 2020 entitled ‘Critical Raw Materials Resilience: Charting a Path towards greater Security and Sustainability’ (COM (2020)0474) / 1b P9_TA(2021)0468

Removed:Recital 13: (13) In order to improve the environmental sustainability of products and to ensure the free movement of products in the internal market, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by setting out ecodesign requirements. Those ecodesign requirements should in principle apply to specific product groups, such as washing machines or washing machines and washer dryers. In order to maximise the effectiveness of ecodesign requirements and to efficiently improve environmental sustainability of products, as well as their social sustainability, it should also be possible to set out one or more horizontal ecodesign requirements for a wider range of products groups, such as electronic appliances or textiles. Horizontal ecodesign requirements should be established where the technical similarities of product groups allow their environmental sustainability to be improved based on the same requirements.

Added:Recital 4: (4) In the absence of legislation at Union level, diverging national approaches to improving the environmental sustainability of products have already emerged, ranging from information requirements on the duration of software compatibility of electronic devices to reporting obligations on handling unsold durable goods. This is an indication that further national efforts to achieve the aims pursued by this Regulation will likely lead to further fragmentation of the internal market. Therefore, in order to safeguard the functioning of the internal market while ensuring a high level of environmental protection, there is a need for an ambitious regulatory framework to progressively introduce ecodesign requirements for products. This Regulation will, by making the ecodesign approach initially set out in Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council29 applicable to the broadest possible range of products, provide such a framework.

Removed:Recital 14: (14) In order to allow the Commission to set requirements as appropriate to the product groups covered, ecodesign requirements should include performance and information requirements. Those requirements should be used to improve product aspects relevant for environmental sustainability, such as energy efficiency, durability, reparability, reusability, refurbishment and carbon and environmental footprints. Ecodesign requirements should be transparent, objective, proportionate and in compliance with international trade rules. Those requirements should also be based on the product parameters referred to in Annex I and, in setting them, the Commission should also take into account the Union objectives in the fields of climate, environment and biodiversity, energy efficiency and resource security. They should contribute to significantly decreasing the Union’s material and consumption footprints in order to bring them into planetary boundaries as soon as possible.

Added:Recital 5: (5) This Regulation will support production and consumption patterns that are aligned with the Union’s overall sustainability targets, including climate, environmental, energy, resource-use and biodiversity, while staying within planetary boundaries, by establishing a legislative framework which contributes to enabling products fit for a climate-neutral, resource-efficient and circular economy, reducing waste and ensuring that the performance of frontrunners in sustainability progressively becomes the norm. It should provide for the setting of new ecodesign requirements to improve product durability, reusability, upgradability, recyclability, and repairability, improve possibilities for refurbishment and maintenance, address the presence of hazardous chemicals in products, increase their energy and resource efficiency, reduce their expected generation of waste materials and increase recycled content in products, while ensuring their performance and safety, enabling remanufacturing and high-quality recycling and reducing carbon and environmental footprints.

Removed:Recital 19: (19) In order to take into account the diversity of products, the Commission should select the methods to assess the setting of the ecodesign requirements and, as appropriate, develop them further based on the nature of the product, its most relevant aspects and its impacts over its life cycle. In doing so, the Commission should take account of its experience in assessing the setting of requirements under Directive 2009/125/EC and the continuing efforts to develop and improve science-based assessment tools such as the update of the methodology for ecodesign of energy-related products, and the Product Environmental Footprint method set out in Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/227956 , including as regards temporary storage of carbon, as well as the development of standards by international and European standardisation organisations, including on the material efficiency of energy-related products. Building on these tools and using dedicated studies when needed, the Commission should further reinforce circularity aspects (such as durability, reparability including reparability scoring, identification of chemicals hindering re-use and recycling) in the assessment of products in accordance with a life-cycle approach with a view to the preparation of ecodesign requirements, and should develop new methods or tools where appropriate. New approaches may also be needed for the preparation of mandatory public procurement criteria and for bans on the destruction of unsold consumer prod…

Added:Recital 5 a (new): (5a) Practices making products prematurely obsolete or non-functional are negatively affecting consumers, and have a negative impact on the environment due to the increased material use in our economy. To ensure that products have a long lifespan for consumers, to reduce the generation of waste and to contribute to sustainable consumption, this Regulation should address such practices, in particular when they are the result of design choices by manufacturers, when software updates or accessories are not provided within an appropriate period of time, or when the functionality of a product is limited when consumers use consumables, spare parts or accessories not provided by the original manufacturer. As reparability is a cornerstone of a long lifespan for products, the Regulation should also ensure that disassembly of key components is not impeded, and access to repair information and spare parts is not limited to authorised repairers.

Removed:Recital 23: (23) To improve environmental sustainability of products information requirements should relate to a selected product parameter relevant to the product aspect, such as the product’s environmental footprint or its durability. They should require manufacturer to make available information on the product’s performance in relation to a selected product parameter or other information that may influence the way the product is handled by parties other than the manufacturer in order to improve performance in relation to such a parameter. Such information requirements should be set either in addition to, or in place of, performance requirements on the same product parameter. Where the Commission decides to only set information requirements in place of performance requirements, it should duly justify that choice. Where a delegated act includes information requirements, it should indicate the method for making the required information available, such as its inclusion on a free-access website, product passport or product label. Essential information relating to the health, safety and rights of end-users should always be provided to consumers through physical means and be accessible through a data carrier included on the product. Information requirements are necessary to lead to the behavioural change needed to ensure that the environmental sustainability objectives of this Regulation are achieved. It is important that relevant information is always provided to the consumer prior to the p…

Added:Recital 6: (6) The European Parliament, in its Resolution of 25 November 2020 ‘Towards a more sustainable single market for business and consumers’30, called for setting a right framework to ensure the production of durable products which are easier to repair, re-use and recycle, while providing increased rights for consumers, including information requirements and longer legal guarantee periods. In its report on the New Circular Economy Action Plan adopted on 16 February 202131, the European Parliament underlined that sustainable, circular, safe and non-toxic products and materials should become the norm in the Union market and not the exception and should be seen as the default choice, which is attractive, affordable and accessible for all consumers. The European Parliament also called for Union binding targets to significantly reduce Union material and consumption footprints. It considered that the transition to a circular economy can provide solutions to address the current environmental challenges and the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council, in its conclusions on ‘Making the Recovery Circular and Green’ adopted on 11 December 202032, also welcomed the Commission’s intention to submit legislative proposals as part of a comprehensive and integrated sustainable product policy framework that promotes climate neutrality, energy and resource efficiency and a non-toxic circular economy, protects public health and biodiversity, and empowers and protects consume…

Removed:Recital 26: (26) The information requirements set under this Regulation should include the requirement to make available a product passport. The product passport is an important tool for making information available to actors along the entire value chain and the availability of a product passport should significantly enhance end-to-end traceability of a product throughout its value chain. Among other things, the product passport should help consumers make informed choices by improving their access to product information relevant to them, allow economic operators other value chain actors such as repairers, including independent repairers, refurbishers, or recyclers to access relevant information, and enable competent national authorities to perform their duties. To this end, the product passport should not replace but complement non-digital forms of transmitting information, such as information in the product manual or on a label. In addition, it should be possible for the product passport to be used for information on other sustainability aspects applicable to the relevant product group pursuant to other Union legislation.

Added:Recital 8: (8) This Regulation should also contribute to achieving the Union’s wider environmental objectives. The 8th Environmental Action Programme38 enshrines in a legal framework the Union’s objective of staying within the planetary boundaries and identifies enabling conditions to achieve priority objectives, which include the transition to a non-toxic circular economy. The European Green Deal also calls for the Union to better monitor, report, prevent and remedy air, water, soil and consumer products pollution. This means that chemicals, materials and products have to be or become safe and sustainable by design and during their life cycle, leading to non-toxic material cycles39 . In addition, both the European Green Deal and the CEAP recognise that the Union internal market provides a critical mass that is able to influence global standards on product sustainability and product design. This Regulation should therefore play a significant role towards achieving several targets established under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ‘Responsible consumption and production’40 , both inside and outside the Union.

Removed:Recital 35: (35) Any processing of personal data pursuant to this Regulation should comply with the applicable rules on the protection of personal data. Processing of personal data by the competent national authorities within Member States should be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council66 . Processing of personal data by the Commission should be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council67 . Personal data of end-users should not be stored or extrapolated from the digital product passport.

Added:Recital 12 a (new): (12a) The second-hand sector plays a specific role in promoting sustainable production and consumption, including in the development of new circular business models. Due to the specificities of this sector, which is based on prolonging the lifetime of a product and avoiding it becoming waste, second-hand products, in particular products that undergo refurbishment or repair, originating from within the Union should not be considered as new products that are placed on the market or put into service and should therefore not have to comply with ecodesign requirements Second-hand products imported from third countries should comply with ecodesign requirements, but it should be possible to exempt them provided that certain conditions are met.

Removed:Recital 39: (39) To drive consumers towards more sustainable choices, labels should, when required by the delegated acts adopted pursuant to this Regulation, provide clear and easily understandable information allowing for the effective comparison of products, for instance by indicating classes of performance. Specifically for consumers, physical labels can be an additional source of information at the place of sale. They can provide a quick visual basis for consumers to distinguish between products based on their performance in relation to a specific product parameter or set of product parameters. They should, where appropriate, also allow for the accessing of additional information by bearing specific references like website addresses, dynamic QR codes, links to online labels or any appropriate consumer-oriented means. The Commission should set out in the relevant delegated act the most effective way of displaying such labels, including in the case of online distance selling, taking into account the implications for customers and economic operators and the characteristics of the products concerned. The Commission may also require the label to be printed on the packaging of the product.

Added:Recital 13: (13) In order to improve the environmental sustainability of products and to ensure the free movement of products in the internal market, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by setting out ecodesign requirements. Those ecodesign requirements should in principle apply to specific product groups, such as washing machines or washing machines and washer dryers. In order to maximise the effectiveness of ecodesign requirements and to efficiently improve environmental sustainability of products, it should also be possible to set out one or more horizontal ecodesign requirements for a wider range of products groups, such as electronic appliances or textiles. Horizontal ecodesign requirements should be established where the technical similarities of product groups allow their environmental sustainability to be improved based on the same requirements. It is important that horizontal requirements be developed in particular on durability and repairability. Sufficient time should be provided to economic operators to adjust to new ecodesign requirements. Those horizontal requirements should take into account potential environmental benefits stemming from the use of one common charger for several products. Therefore, product groups with technical similarities should be required to be equipped with common chargers.

Removed:Recital 41: (41) Consumers should be protected from misleading information that could hamper their choices for more sustainable products. For this reasons it should be prohibited to place on the market products bearing a label with misleading or false information or mimicking the labels provided for in this Regulation.

Added:Recital 14: (14) In order to allow the Commission to set requirements as appropriate to the product groups covered, ecodesign requirements should include performance and information requirements. Those requirements should be used to improve relevant product aspects concerning environmental sustainability, such as energy efficiency, durability, repairability, reusability, recyclability, and carbon and environmental footprints. Ecodesign requirements should be transparent, objective, proportionate and in compliance with international trade rules. Those requirements should also be based on the product parameters referred to in Annex I and, in setting them, the Commission should take into account the Union’s objectives in the fields of climate, environment and biodiversity, energy efficiency and resource security. Such requirements should contribute to decreasing the Union’s environmental, material and consumption footprints in order to bring them within planetary boundaries as soon as possible.

Removed:Recital 42: (42) To deliver in the most efficient way on the European Green Deal’s objectives and to address the most impactful products first, the Commission should carry out a prioritisation of products to be regulated under this Regulation and requirements that will apply to them. Based on the process followed for prioritisation under Directive 2009/125/EC, the Commission should adopt a working plan, covering at least 3 years, which should be made publicly available and be presented to the European Parliament, laying down a list of product groups for which it plans to adopt delegated acts as well as the product aspects for which it intends to adopt delegated acts of horizontal application. In prioritising, the Commission should consider in particular those product groups identified in this Regulation, and base its prioritisation on a set of criteria pertaining to the delegated acts’ potential contribution to the Union climate, environmental and energy objectives and their potential for improving the product aspects selected without disproportionate costs to the public and economic operators. Considering their importance for meeting the Union’s energy objectives, the working plans should include an adequate share of actions related to energy-related products. Member States and stakeholders should also be consulted through the Ecodesign Forum. Due to the complementarities between this Regulation and Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 for energy-related products, the timelines for the working pla…

Added:Recital 15: (15) Once a delegated act setting ecodesign requirements is adopted by the Commission for a given product group, Member States should, in order to ensure the functioning of the internal market, no longer be allowed to set national performance requirements based on product parameters covered by such performance requirements laid down in that delegated act, and no longer be allowed to set national information requirements based on product parameters covered by such information requirements laid down in that delegated act. In order to ensure the functioning of the internal market, the Commission should be empowered to establish that no ecodesign requirements in the form of performance requirements and/or in the form of information requirements are necessary in relation to a specific product parameter. It is important that the Commission duly justify its decision where it decides not to lay down performance or information requirements.

Removed:Recital 44: deleted

Added:Recital 17: (17) Consistency should be ensured between this Regulation and requirements set in or pursuant to other Union legislation, especially products, chemicals, packaging and waste legislation51. However, the existence of empowerments under other Union legislation to set requirements with the same or similar effects as requirements under this Regulation does not limit the empowerments included in this Regulation, unless specified in this Regulation.

Removed:Recital 45: (45) Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could greatly benefit from an increase in the demand for sustainable products but could also face costs and difficulties with some of the requirements. The Member States and the Commission should, in their respective areas of responsibility, provide adequate information, ensure targeted and specialised training, and provide specific assistance and support, including financial, through existing funding and financing tools, to SMEs active in the manufacturing of products for which ecodesign requirements are set. Those actions should, for example, cover the calculation of the product environmental footprint, and the technical implementation of the product passport. The actions could also facilitate SMEs access both to digital tools to generate a product passport and to relevant software and databases for the life cycle assessments. Member States actions should be taken in respect of applicable State aid rules

Added:Recital 19: (19) In order to take into account the diversity of products, the Commission should select the methods to assess the setting of the ecodesign requirements and, as appropriate, develop them further based on the nature of the product, its most relevant aspects and its impacts over its life cycle. In doing so, the Commission should take account of its experience in assessing the setting of requirements under Directive 2009/125/EC and the continuing efforts to develop and improve science-based assessment tools, such as the update of the methodology for ecodesign of energy-related products, and the Product Environmental Footprint method set out in Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/227956 , including as regards temporary storage of carbon, as well as the development of standards by international and European standardisation organisations, including on the material efficiency of energy-related products, as well as the area of electrical engineering. Building on these tools and using dedicated studies when needed, the Commission should further reinforce circularity aspects (such as durability, repairability including repairability scoring, recyclability, reusability, identification of chemicals hindering re-use and recycling) in the assessment of products, in accordance with a lifecycle approach with a view to the preparation of ecodesign requirements, and should develop new methods or tools where appropriate. New approaches may also be needed for the preparation of mandatory publi…

Removed:Recital 46: (46) The destruction of unsold consumer products, such as textiles and electronic appliances by economic operators is becoming a widespread environmental problem across the Union, in particular due to the rapid growth of online sales. It amounts to a loss of valuable economic resources as goods are produced, transported and afterwards destroyed without ever being used for their intended purpose. It is therefore necessary, in the interest of environmental protection, that this Regulation establishes a framework to prevent the destruction of unsold products primarily intended for consumers pursuant to Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council69, including products that have been returned by a consumer in view of their right of withdrawal as laid down by Directive (EU) 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council70 . This will reduce the environmental impact of those products by reducing the generation of waste and by dis-incentivising overproduction of products. In addition, given that several Member States have introduced national legislation on the destruction of unsold consumer products thereby creating market distortions, harmonised rules on the destruction of unsold consumer products are necessary to ensure that distributors, retailers and other economic operators are subject to the same rules and incentives across Member States.

Added:Recital 20: (20) Performance requirements should relate to a selected product parameter relevant to the targeted product aspect for which potential for improving environmental sustainability has been identified. Such requirements may include minimum or maximum levels of performance in relation to the product parameter, non-quantitative requirements that aim to improve performance in relation to the product parameter, or requirements related to a product’s functional performance to ensure that the selected performance requirements do not negatively impact the ability of the product to perform the function for which it was designed and marketed. Regarding minimum or maximum levels, they may for example take the form of a limit on energy consumption in the use phase or on the quantities of a given material incorporated in the product, a requirement for minimum quantities of recycled content while taking into consideration the availability of recyclates, or a limit on a specific environmental impact category or on an aggregation of all relevant environmental impacts. An example of a non-quantitative requirement is the prohibition of a specific technical solution that is detrimental to product repairability. Performance requirements will be used to ensure the removal of the worst performing products from the market and to gradually move to the best performing products where this is necessary to contribute to the environmental sustainability objectives of the Regulation. This Regulation should…

Removed:Recital 47: (47) To dis-incentivise the destruction of unsold consumer products and to further generate data on the occurrence of this practice, this Regulation should introduce a transparency obligation for economic operators holding consumer products in the Union, requiring them to disclose information on the number of unsold consumer products discarded per year. The economic operator should indicate the product type or category, the reasons for their discarding and their delivery for subsequent waste treatment operations. While economic operators should be free to determine how to disclose that information in a manner appropriate to their business environment, it should be considered a best practice to include the required information in a publicly available website or in a non-financial statement drafted in accordance with Article 19a of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council71 where applicable.

Added:Recital 22: (22) Chemical safety is a recognised element of product sustainability. It is based on chemicals’ intrinsic hazards to health or the environment in combination with specific or generic exposure, and is addressed by chemicals legislation, such as Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council58, Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council59, Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council60, Regulation (EU) 2017/745 of the European Parliament and of the Council61 and Directive 2009/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council62. This Regulation should not enable the restriction of substances based on chemical safety, as done under other Union legislation, unless there is an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment, arising from the use of a substance present in the product or product component when it is placed on the market or during the subsequent stages of its lifecycle. This Regulation should not enable the restriction of substances for reasons related to food safety. Union law on chemicals and food, however, does not allow addressing, through restrictions on certain substances, impacts on sustainability that are unrelated to chemical safety or food safety. To overcome this limitation, this Regulation should allow, under certain conditions, for the restriction, of substances present in products which negatively affect products’ sustainability. This Regulation should com…

Removed:Recital 48: (48) In order to avoid the destruction of unsold consumer products, where the destruction of such products is prevalent, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to supplement this Regulation by prohibiting the destruction of such products. Given the wide range of products that may potentially be destroyed without ever being sold or used, it is necessary to establish such empowerment in this Regulation. However, the prohibition set in the delegated acts should apply to specific product groups to be determined based on an assessment by the Commission of the extent to which the destruction of such products takes place in practice, taking into account the information made available by economic operators where appropriate. To ensure that this obligation is proportionate, the Commission should consider specific exemptions under which destroying unsold consumer products may still be permitted, for instance in view of health and safety concerns. To monitor the effectiveness of this prohibition and to dis-incentivise circumvention, economic operators should be required to disclose the number of unsold consumer products destroyed and the reasons for their destruction under applicable exemptions. Finally, to avoid any undue administrative burden on small and microenterprises, they should be exempted from the obligations to disclose their unsold discarded products and from the prohibition to discard specific products groups set in…

Added:Recital 23: (23) To improve environmental sustainability of products, information requirements should relate to a selected product parameter relevant to the product aspect, such as the product’s environmental and carbon footprint and its durability. They should require manufacturer to make available information on the product’s performance in relation to a selected product parameter or other information that may influence the way the product is handled by parties other than the manufacturer in order to improve performance in relation to such a parameter. Such information requirements should be set either in addition to, or in place of, performance requirements on the same product parameter as appropriate. It is important that the Commission duly justify its decision to only lay down information requirements instead of performance requirements. Where a delegated act includes information requirements, it should indicate the method for making the required information available and easily accessible, such as its inclusion on a free-access website, product passport or product label. Essential information relating to the health, safety and rights of end-users should always be provided to consumers by physical means and be accessible through a data carrier included on the product. Information requirements are necessary to lead to the behavioural change needed to ensure that the environmental sustainability objectives of this Regulation are achieved. Information relevant for an informed purchasi…

Removed:Recital 55 a (new): (55a) Refurbishment and second-hand sectors play a specific role in promoting sustainable consumption patterns and in the development of circular business models. Due to the specificities of those sectors, their role along the value chain and related obligations should be specifically evaluated in the setting of ecodesign requirements with the adopted delegated acts specifying which rules would be appropriate for them.

Added:Recital 24: (24) Where delegated acts include information requirements, they may in addition determine classes of performance in relation to one or more relevant product parameters, in order to facilitate comparison between products on the basis of that parameter. Classes of performance should enable differentiation of products based on their relative sustainability and could be used by both consumers and public authorities. As such, they are intended to drive the market towards more sustainable products without compromising functionality. As information requirements on the durability and repairability of products play a central role as regards consumers engaging in sustainable consumption patterns, this Regulation should enable the establishment of repairability scores.

Removed:Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: This Regulation establishes a framework to improve the environmental sustainability of products in order to make sustainable products the norm and to reduce their overall environmental footprint over their lifecycle, as well as to improve their social sustainability and to ensure free movement in the internal market by setting ecodesign requirements that products shall fulfil to be placed on the market or put into service. Those ecodesign requirements, which shall be further elaborated by the Commission in delegated acts, relate to:

Added:Recital 26: (26) The information requirements set under this Regulation should include the requirement to make available a product passport. The product passport is an important tool for making information available to actors along the entire value chain and the availability of a product passport should significantly enhance end- to-end traceability of a product throughout its value chain. Among other things, the product passport should help consumers make informed choices by improving their access to relevant product, allow economic operators and other value chain actors, such as professional repairers, independent operators, refurbishers or recyclers to access relevant information and enable competent national authorities to perform their duties, without endangering the protection of confidential business information. To this end, the product passport should not replace, but complement non-digital forms of transmitting information, such as information in the product manual or the label. In addition, it should be possible for the product passport to be used for information on other sustainability aspects applicable to the relevant product group pursuant to other Union legislation.

Removed:The main objective of the Sustainable Products Initiative was to make sustainable products the norm in the EU market and beyond.Social aspects and due diligence are key aspects of the sustainability of a product and the new Regulation should therefore open up the possibility to set information and performance requirements for these aspects as well.

Added:Recital 27: (27) To take account of the nature of the product and its market, the information to be included in the product passport should be carefully examined on a case-by-case basis when preparing product-specific rules, taking into consideration the cases of unique items and protection of confidential business information. To optimise access to the resulting information while also protecting intellectual property rights, the product passport needs to be designed and implemented allowing differentiated access to the information included in the product passport depending on the type of information and the typology of stakeholders. Similarly, to avoid costs to companies and the public that are disproportionate to the wider benefits, the product passport should be specific to the item, batch or product model, depending on for example the complexity of the value chain, the size, nature or impacts of the products considered. The product passport should remain available for at least the expected lifetime of a specific product, but with an adequate margin to ensure the product passport is available in cases in which the product lasts for longer than expected.

Removed:Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – point c a (new): (ca) products' premature obsolescence;

Added:Recital 28: (28) In order to ensure interoperability, the types of permitted data carriers should be specified. For the same reason, the data carrier and the unique product identifier should be released in accordance with internationally recognised standards. The data should be transferable through an open interoperable data exchange network without vendor lock-in. The power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission to amend this Regulation by replacing or adding standards in accordance with which the data carrier and the unique identifiers may be released, in light of technical or scientific progress. This should ensure that the information contained in the product passport can be recorded and transmitted by all economic operators, as well as to guarantee the compatibility of the unique identifier with external components such as scanning devices.

Removed:Article 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 a (new): In setting ecodesign requirements the Commission shall also take into consideration the social sustainability of products and due diligence aspects.

Added:Recital 29: (29) In order to not unnecessarily delay the establishment of ecodesign requirements other than on the product passport or to ensure that product passports can be effectively implemented, the Commission should be allowed to exempt product groups from the product passport requirements in case technical specifications are not available in relation to the essential requirements for the technical design and operation of the product passport. Similarly, in order to prevent unnecessary administrative burden for economic operator, the Commission should be allowed to exempt product groups from the product passport requirements exceptionally in case other Union law already includes a system for the digital provision of product information allowing actors along the value chain to access relevant product information and facilitating the verification of product compliance by competent national authorities. These exemptions should be periodically reviewed taking into account further availability of technical specifications and ended where possible.

Removed:Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6: (6) ‘ecodesign’ means the integration of environmental sustainability as well as social sustainability considerations into the characteristics of a product and the processes taking place throughout the product’s value chain;

Added:Recital 33: (33) To ensure the effective roll-out of the product passport, technical design, data requirements and operation of the product passport should adhere to a set of essential technical requirements. Such requirements should provide a basis for the consistent deployment of the product passport across sectors. Technical specifications should be established to ensure the effective implementation of those essential requirements, either in the form of harmonised standard referenced in the Official Journal or, as a fall-back option, common specification adopted by the Commission. The technical design should ensure that the product passport carries data in a secure way, respecting privacy rules. The digital product passport will be developed in an open dialogue with international partners, in order to take account of their views when developing technical specifications and to ensure that they help remove trade barriers for greener products with extended lifecycles and circularity, lower costs for sustainable investments, marketing and compliance and supporting innovation. Technical specifications and requirements related to traceability across the value chain should, in order to allow for their effective implementation, to the extent possible be developed based on a consensual approach and on the involvement, buy-in, and effective collaboration of a diverse set of actors, including standardisation bodies, industry associations, start-ups, consumer organisations, experts, NGOs and inte…