Product Liability 2009 - Arnold & Porter LLP

REACH and the Consumer Products Sector Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
any future product liability or occupational health litigation related
to the substance in question.
The greening of EU product policy
REACH is just one of a large number of legislative initiatives
undertaken by the EU since 2000 with the objective of improving
the safety of consumer products and lessening their environmental
impact. Key measures have included the following:
2000’s End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive (2000/53/EC).
The ELV Directive requires that last owners must be able to
dispose of their vehicles free of charge from 2007 (and
requires producers to pay all or a significant part of the free
take-back from this date), sets rising reuse, recycling and
recovery targets and restricts the use of hazardous
substances in both new vehicles and replacement vehicle
parts.
2001’s revised General Product Safety Directive
(2001/95/EC). The GPS Directive obliges producers and
distributors of consumer goods to ensure their safety and
immediately to notify the authorities and take appropriate
corrective action (including recall) when an unsafe product
has reached the market.
2002’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
Directive (2002/96/EC), which is currently under review.
The WEEE Directive aims to minimise the impact of
electrical and electronic goods on the environment, by
increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of
WEEE going to landfill. It seeks to do so by making
producers responsible for financing the collection,
treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and
by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their
waste equipment free of charge. The operation, and
possible expansion of, the WEEE regime is being
considered by the Commission in 2008.
2002’s related Directive on Restrictions of the use of certain
Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic
equipment (RoHS) (2002/96/EC, as amended by Directive
2003/108/EC). RoHS, which is also under review, prohibits
the placing on the market, as from 1 July 2006, of
equipment containing more than the specified limits of lead,
cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated
biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers
(PBDE). The Commission’s current consultation on the
expansion of RoHS may include another 46 substances,
including PVC, within its remit.
Endnotes
ICLG TO: PRODUCT LIABILITY 2009
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2003’s Directive banning the marketing and use of penta
and octa bromodiphenyl ether substances at concentrates
above 0.1 per cent by weight (Directive 2003/11/EC).
2005’s Energy-using Products (EUP) Directive
(2005/32/EC). The EUP Directive establishes a legal
framework for the setting of eco-design requirements to
improve the environmental performance of EUPs
throughout their lifecycle. Various Commission studies are
currently examining a number of domestic and other
products, with a view to establishing priorities for the
“daughter directives” that are expected to be published
under the EUP Directive.
2006’s Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC). The Directive
imposes a partial ban on the placing on the market of nickelcadmium
batteries and sets new restrictions on the disposal
of batteries and accumulators.
1 See the Questions & Answers document at
2
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/reach/faq_en.htm
(under “Which are the most dangerous substances? How
many are there?”).
European Council. 2001. Conclusions from Environment
Council. 7 June 2001.
3 Stavros Dimas, EU Commissioner for the Environment.
“Climate Change and REACH”. Speech to the American
Chamber of Commerce in the EU, Brussels, 19 July 2005.
4 European Commission. April 2005. Special Eurobarometer
survey, “The attitudes of European citizens towards
environment”.
5 “A Present for Life: hazardous chemicals in umbilical cord
blood”, WWF and Greenpeace, September 2005.
6 Greenpeace press release, “Man made chemicals in Maternal
and Umbilical cord blood”, 8 September 2005.
7 The Economist. 11-17 November 2006.
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