Ecodesign: textiles, footwear, detergents and chemicals amongst products to be prioritised under new rules

Published on 28 June 2024 and in force since 18 July, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation^[1] (ESPR) builds on the requirements established by its predecessor, the Ecodesign Directive^[2], to further improve the sustainability of products placed on the EU market.

Whereas the Ecodesign Directive concentrated on approx 40 energy-related product groups (e.g. fridges, TVs, etc), the scope of the ESPR has been broadened to include nearly all physical products on the market, with the exception of: (i) human and veterinary medicinal products; (ii) food and feed; (iii) living plants, animals and microorganisms; (iv) products of human origin; (v) products of plants and animals related directly to their future reproduction and (vi) motor vehicles with their own ecodesign rules embedded in product-specific legislation.

The ESPR sets out the framework for ecodesign requirements for in-scope products. Notable new measures introduced within this framework include:

• requirements for product durability, reusability, upgradability, and reparability, and energy and resource efficiency, remanufacturing, and recycling
• rules for product carbon and environmental footprints
• measures to tackle 'substances of concern' in products
• information requirements including notably the introduction of the Digital Product Passport
• bans on the destruction of unsold consumer products

The new Regulation empowers the European Commission to adopt product-specific delegated acts in order to set out the new requirements for each product group concerned. In that sense, it is very much a framework legislation, just as the Ecodesign Directive was.

Priority product groups

Product groups will be addressed in order of priority assigned to each group by the Commission, which will then produce a working plan for the prioritised groups including timelines for the adoption of the delegated acts for each group. The first working plan is due by April 2025, and should include iron and steel, aluminium, textiles and footwear, furniture, tyres, detergents, paints, lubricants, chemicals, certain energy-related products and certain electronics, including ICT products. The first delegated acts for these product groups are expected to be adopted in 2026, with application in 2027 and 2028.

Ban on destruction of textiles already included

With respect to rules for textile products, a direct EU-wide ban on the destruction of textiles and footwear is already provided for in the body of the ESPR itself and will apply to large companies from 19 July 2026. Medium-sized companies are exempted from the ban until 19 July 2030, and it does not apply to small companies. Originally a sticking point during interinstitutional negotiations, this ban was eventually agreed to by both the European Parliament and the Council owing to the global prevalence of the 'fast fashion culture' and the short life cycle of its products^[3], and was integrated directly into the parent act (Annex VII) rather than waiting to enact this via the product-specific delegated legislation.

Interplay with forthcoming updates to rules for detergents

One of the product groups in the Commission's crosshairs also has updates to its own product-specific legislation in the pipeline: revision of the Detergents Regulation^[4] is well underway, currently at the trilogue stage and likely to be adopted and published before the first set of delegated acts under the ESPR are available. It remains to be seen how the envisaged rules under the ESPR will interact in practice with the updated version of the Detergents Regulation: it may be that the rules will be complementary, such that the ESPR delegated act will focus more on sustainability while the Detergents Regulation will focus more on protecting humans and the environment.

Given that the legislators should be very mindful of these issues, they will aim to avoid overlapping and possibly inconsistent requirements. Should one nevertheless arise, the Detergents Regulation should take priority on the basis of the EU's hierarchy of norms: i.e. a Regulation is higher up the pyramid than a Commission delegated act.

What about chemicals?

Last but certainly not least, the rules for chemicals will have to be developed with particular care to avoid overlap with the existing regulatory framework (REACH, CLP and sectoral legislation). The ESPR provides a definition of 'substances of concern' with reference to certain REACH and CLP provisions^[5], but aims to avoid double regulation as it addresses substances of concern only in relation to sustainability issues e.g. when setting product performance requirements or tracking such substances in materials and products throughout their life cycle insofar as they affect the recyclability of the material or product. Questions of chemical safety, on the other hand, should continue to be regulated by REACH and CLP^[6]. As highlighted by industry, in order to maintain this separation and ensure clarity for manufacturers and recyclers alike, the legislators will need to pay consistent attention to the way this is implemented in each product group-specific delegated act, taking into account the differing substances concerned and the particularities of the applicable manufacturing, recycling and waste management procedures in each case.

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^[1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products, amending Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC (Text with EEA relevance).

^[2] Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-related products (recast) (Text with EEA relevance).

^[3] Recital 57 ESPR.

^[4] Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on detergents (Text with EEA relevance).

^[5] Article 2(27) ESPR: includes substances identified as  substances of very high concern (SVHC) under REACH, substances with harmonised classification under CLP and persistent organic pollutants under the POPs Regulation, as well as substances to be defined in the delegated acts.

^[6] Recital 26 ESPR. See also: Safety should not drive substance restrictions under EU ecodesign regulation, Commission says (enhesa.com).

Authors: Gerard McElwee and Peter Sellar