PRESS OFFICE

Evasion of environmental, legal and financial producer obligations through online retail platforms
EucoLight conference on solutions
ecommerce

More and more consumers purchase electrical products through online marketplaces. However, a recent survey by Eucolight members has uncovered that an alarming proportion of such products do not comply with their environmental, legal and financial obligations. The survey examined seven different product types sold through an online marketplace in 10 member states.  The results showed that in most cases, over 80% of the checked products did not comply with the Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations.

This exceptionally high level of non-compliance leads to unfair competition, orphan waste and environmental problems.

EucoLight is organizing a conference on 6th November 2019 in Brussels starting at 13:00 to discuss problems and solutions for "Preventing evasion of extended producer responsibility obligations through online platforms".  Over the last 3 years the issue and impact on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems has been raised at EU and national level.  This conference will reveal the full results of the survey undertaken.  It will showcase the work now being undertaken by Member States to tackle this issue.  It will help create a roadmap for driving compliance within online marketplaces. 

As Marc Guiraud, Secretary General of EucoLight, points out: “The scale of the problem is increasing. At our conference we will hear of national solutions, intentions from the EU and responses from online marketplaces. We are pleased to have the relevant and important stakeholders at the conference to highlight developments and solutions “.

In the words of Juan Carlos Enrique, AMBILAMP’s Managing Director: “The success of the Extended Producer Responsibility Organizations that form EucoLight comes from fulfilling a legislation designed to prevent environmental damages that neither as industry nor as society we can afford. It’s necessary and urgent to give a solution to what, till today remains to be a general negligence in some type of online sales”.

In particular the topic will be relevant to:

  • Extended producer responsibility organisations
  • Producer, consumer, distributor and online retail representatives
  • European, international and national institutions and Governments
  • Market surveillance experts

The agenda of the event can be found here as well as the online booking form. Places are strictly limited, and so early booking is recommended.