take-e-way News and Press Releases

In a current case referred to take-e-way, the German Federal Environment Agency sent a “hearing as a secondary party to an administrative offence” notice to a company based in Germany for delivering electrical appliances from Germany to Austria, Denmark, Spain, France and Italy without first commissioning an authorised representative in the respective countries. If you sell electrical equipment to other EU Member States and you are not registered there or you need an authorised local representative, you are advised to take appropriate measures without delay.

With the impending amendment to the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act as of 1 January, 2022, an actually minor tightening for “obliged distributors” has fallen somewhat under the radar, but it certainly has a major impact on existing practice: When selling appliances with an edge length of more than 50 cm (this can already apply to commercially available microwave ovens), as well as when selling television sets and refrigerators, the purchaser must be actively asked whether he/she wishes to return a corresponding old appliance completely free of charge.

Nine German Dual Systems have decided to jointly offer free, manufacturer-independent labelling for packaging in order to support distributors in educating their customers. Our co-operation partners are amongst the nine systems, which means that companies that have a contract with take-e-way for the licensing of packaging in Germany can also make use of the separation notices.

After being passed by the Bundestag, on 7 May 2021 the amendment to the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG = German WEEE conversion) was also approved by the Bundesrat. This legislation is aimed at expanding the network of return points in order to increase the collection rate of electronic waste, but also of reusable appliances. By means of this amendment to the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act, the Federal Government is extending the trade’s take-back obligations to include discounters, supermarkets and other food retailers. According to the Bundesrat, about 25,000 companies are affected by these new obligations.

take-e-way has learnt from circles involved that it may make sense for distributors of batteries who can make use of a transitional period for battery registration to register their batteries with the EAR Foundation already now, because the public authority expects a substantial registration rush at the end of the year. If you want to ensure that you can seamlessly continue to legally sell batteries after the transition period without being slowed down by processing times for your registration, you are advised not to wait until the end of the year to do so. Please note: Batteries contained in your electrical appliances must likewise be registered.

As reported by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, restaurants, bistros and cafés that offer take-away beverages and food will also have to offer their products in reusable packaging from 2023. In addition, the legislature is extending the mandatory deposit to include all disposable plastic beverage bottles and beverage cans. From 2025 onwards, disposable PET beverage bottles are to be made of at least 25 per cent recycled plastic. In the future, online marketplaces and fulfilment service providers will need to check that the manufacturers of packaged goods are listed in the Packaging Register and have participated in a dual system.

On 8th April 2021, the Slovenian government published a new decree on Packaging and Packaging Waste Handling, which is an implementing regulation based on the amendment to the Environmental Protection Act and came into force on 24th April 2021. Based on this, all "new" market participants must appoint an authorised representative, who is obliged transfer the adopted obligation to a take-back system within only 30 days.

Since 30 April 2021, the EPREL reporting template for light sources has likewise been fully complete. Previously, only pre-registration was possible so that the QR code could be generated in order to then already enable suppliers to create energy labels themselves. Since the end of last week, it has been possible for the entry to be made completely.

The new LUCID Authorities Portal has been available since 12 April 2021. Transmitting evidence is becoming simpler and more secure. The portal automatically generates a digital file of suspected administrative offences that have been identified for state authorities.

From 1 July 2022 at the latest, consumers will also be able to return waste electrical appliances free of charge to numerous discounters, food retailers and supermarkets in Germany. The statutory amendment closes additional previous loopholes so that online retailers really do offer their customers free collection and disposal of waste electrical appliances every time they purchase new ones.