The new Elec­tri­cal and Elec­tro­nic Equip­ment Act has been in force sin­ce 1 Janu­ary 2022. Here are the most important chan­ges at a glan­ce.

The new Elec­tri­cal and Elec­tro­nic Equip­ment Act (Elek­troG) was published on 27 May 2021 and came into force on 1 Janu­ary 2022. Here are the most important chan­ges affec­ting manu­fac­tu­rer and dis­tri­bu­tor obli­ga­ti­ons:

Take-back con­cept (Sec­tion 7 a amen­ded Elek­troG):

• Under the new law, for B2B regis­tra­ti­ons, manu­fac­tu­r­ers (or their aut­ho­ri­sed repre­sen­ta­ti­ve) have to sub­mit a take-back con­cept for the dis­po­sal of future WEEE.

Take-back obli­ga­ti­on (Sec­tion 19 amen­ded Elek­troG):

• Amend­ment of the pre­vious pro­vi­si­on, under which devia­ting agree­ments on the future dis­po­sal of B2B equip­ment could be made bet­ween the sel­ler and the buy­er.
• New pro­vi­si­on: The pos­si­bi­li­ty of agre­e­ing devia­ting pro­vi­si­ons is now limi­t­ed to future dis­po­sal cos­ts. This means that reasonable return opti­ons must be pro­vi­ded.

Infor­ma­ti­on obli­ga­ti­ons:

• Accor­ding to Sec­tion 19 (a) amen­ded Elek­troG, manu­fac­tu­r­ers are obli­ged to pro­vi­de the fol­lo­wing infor­ma­ti­on con­cer­ning B2B equip­ment:
  • opti­ons for retur­ning and dis­po­sing of was­te equip­ment offe­red by them;
  • end-user respon­si­bi­li­ty for dele­ting per­so­nal data from the was­te equip­ment to be dis­po­sed of; and
  • the mea­ning of the sym­bol accor­ding to Annex 3 (“crossed-out whee­led bin”)
• In addi­ti­on, B2B equip­ment must also be mark­ed with the “crossed-out whee­led bin” sym­bol. This appli­es to all devices first pla­ced on the mar­ket after 1 Janu­ary 2023.
• Accor­ding to the new Sec­tion 4 para. 4 amen­ded Elek­troG, manu­fac­tu­r­ers are obli­ged to enc­lo­se infor­ma­ti­on with elec­tri­cal and elec­tro­nic equip­ment con­tai­ning a bat­tery or an accu­mu­la­tor, informing end-users about the type and the che­mi­cal sys­tem of the bat­tery or accu­mu­la­tor, and about its safe rem­oval. The end-user or inde­pen­dent qua­li­fied per­son­nel should be able to remo­ve the bat­tery or accu­mu­la­tor easi­ly and non-des­truc­tively from was­te equip­ment when it is retur­ned.
• Fur­ther chan­ges for manu­fac­tu­r­ers con­cern their infor­ma­ti­on obli­ga­ti­ons towards cus­to­mers accor­ding to Sec­tion 18 para. 4 amen­ded Elek­troG (brea­ches are now con­side­red regu­la­to­ry offen­ces) and their report­ing obli­ga­ti­ons towards Stif­tung ear under Sec­tion 27 amen­ded Elek­troG. Sec­tion 28 amen­ded Elek­troG now empha­si­s­es that the obli­ga­ti­on to pro­vi­de infor­ma­ti­on with regard to reu­se or tre­at­ment must be pro­vi­ded in Ger­man or Eng­lish, while the obli­ga­ti­on to noti­fy Stif­tung ear of coll­ec­tion points pur­su­ant to Artic­le 25 (2) Elek­troG has been dele­ted.

Elec­tro­nic mar­ket­places and ful­film­ent ser­vice pro­vi­ders:

• The amend­ment intro­du­ces the terms “elec­tro­nic mar­ket­place”, “ope­ra­tor of an elec­tro­nic mar­ket­place” and “ful­film­ent ser­vice pro­vi­der”.
• Sin­ce 1 Janu­ary 2023, “ope­ra­tors of an elec­tro­nic mar­ket­place” and “ful­film­ent ser­vice pro­vi­ders” have only been allo­wed to offer or per­form their ser­vices for manu­fac­tu­r­ers who have duly regis­tered under the Elek­troG.
• Any vio­la­ti­ons con­sti­tu­te a regu­la­to­ry offence.

Chan­ges con­cer­ning regis­tra­ti­on:

• An addi­ti­on has been made to the infor­ma­ti­on in Annex 2, which is to be pro­vi­ded upon regis­tra­ti­on.
• It now says: “in the case of dis­tri­bu­ti­on by means of distance com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on to other EU Mem­ber Sta­tes: List of Mem­ber Sta­tes and name of the aut­ho­ri­sed repre­sen­ta­ti­ve in the Mem­ber Sta­tes whe­re the pro­du­cer dis­tri­bu­tes elec­tri­cal and elec­tro­nic equip­ment by means of distance com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on”.

Take-back by the dis­tri­bu­tor:

• Sin­ce 1 July 2022, the take-back obli­ga­ti­ons of major dis­tri­bu­tors also app­ly to food retail­ers with a sales area of 800 squa­re met­res or more, pro­vi­ded they offer elec­tri­cal or elec­tro­nic equip­ment seve­ral times a year, or on a regu­lar basis.
• In addi­ti­on, Sec­tion 17 amen­ded Elek­troG pro­vi­des even more expli­cit­ly that free take-back must also be offe­red in the case of free deli­very to pri­va­te house­holds. Under the amen­ded law, dis­tri­bu­tors are now obli­ged to express­ly ask cus­to­mers sig­ning a sales con­tract whe­ther they wish any was­te equip­ment to be coll­ec­ted when the new equip­ment is deli­ver­ed. This also appli­es to inter­net retail­ers when sel­ling three of the six appli­ance cate­go­ries (i.e. the rather lar­ger, bul­kier ones).
• Fur­ther­mo­re, the infor­ma­ti­on obli­ga­ti­on is exten­ded and con­cre­ti­sed by Sec­tion 18 para. 3 amen­ded Elek­troG (among others “within the cus­to­mers’ line of visi­on”). The breach of this infor­ma­ti­on obli­ga­ti­on has also been added to the list of regu­la­to­ry offen­ces.
• The obli­ga­ti­on of dis­tri­bu­tors to indi­ca­te exis­ting coll­ec­tion points in Sec­tion 23 para. 3 Elek­troG has been dele­ted, as has Sec­tion 29 para. 4 Elek­troG, which con­cerns the obli­ga­ti­on of dis­tri­bu­tors to inform Stif­tung ear in case they hand over taken-back WEEE to manu­fac­tu­r­ers, their aut­ho­ri­sed repre­sen­ta­ti­ves or public dis­po­sal pro­vi­ders.