New EU legislation set to hold manufacturers to account
October 13, 2020
New legislation, set to hold ink toner and printer manufacturers to account when it comes to complying with rules around substances of very high concern (SVHC) and product safety, has been welcomed by ETIRA.
The European Ink Toner and Remanufacturers Association (ETIRA) has given its approval to two new items of legislation introduced by the EU.
The first item of legislation comes into force from 5 January 2021, requiring all companies that supply products containing REACH Candidate List substances to submit information into the European Chemicals Agency’s SCIP Database.
The move affects all products on the EU market that contain a SVHC on the REACH Candidate List, with a concentration of more than 0.1% by mass.
The new legislation will make compliance efforts by manufacturers and other suppliers transparent to authorities and third parties, as well as proving particularly useful for waste processors and recyclers to determine the hazardous content in the products they process.
The second legislation item is the introduction of Market Surveillance Authorities, due to be launched in July 2021.
Introduced by the European Commission, the new regulation for market surveillance will require all products sold in the EU under Directive 2009/125/EC – whether sold directly, online or through a fulfilment service provider – to be registered with an official responsible party based in the EU.
A ‘responsible party’ can be a manufacturer, importer, distributor, fulfilment service provider or ‘authorised representative’.
Javier Martinez, president of ETIRA, said: “We are pleased to see these two items of legislation set to come into force across the EU within the next 12 months.
“Knowing who placed products on the EU market is key to holding suppliers and manufacturers to account when it comes to compliance with hazardous content and market surveillance. Earlier this year, two studies showed that many products, including cartridges, that are sold over the internet directly to end users, contained illegal and hazardous chemicals. The new legislation provides tools for the national authorities to ban products at the EU border and impose penalties on companies offering infringing products on the EU market. Online platforms will be required to fulfil the same obligations as other importers and will no longer be able to dodge their responsibility and liability for products offered on their websites etc.
In the coming months, ETIRA and its members will signpost the authorities to online platforms and other “orphan’ cartridges that fail to comply with the new rules.
The two reports mentions are:
ETIRA report: https://www.etira.org/posts/etira-cautions-that-recent-toner-emission-tests-reveal-a-100-failure-rate/
European Chemicals Agency report: https://echa.europa.eu/-/1-in-4-imported-products-found-to-be-non-compliant-with-reach-and-clp For further information about ETIRA and its work, visit www.etira.org