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With a delay of a good year, the EU Commission published its long and eagerly awaited proposal for a Packaging Regulation on 30.11.2022. Following the self-imposed trend, packaging law is also to be transformed from waste to life-cycle regulation and harmonised throughout the EU by means of aregulation.

In its session on 25.11.2022, the Bundesrat finally cleared the way to extend the transition period for operators of electronic marketplaces and fulfillment service providers with regard to manufacturer registration under the ElektroG.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) annulled the classification and labelling of titanium dioxide in powder form under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/217.

On 15.09.2022, the Commission published its proposal for a regulation on horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, the “Cyber Resilience Act” (hereinafter “CRA-E”). As the first European legal act of its kind, it will introduce mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements throughout their lifecycle.

On 05.08.2022, the German government presented the draft of the Second Act Amending the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG). Essentially, this extends the transitional period of Sec. 46 para. 2 ElektroG by 6 months. In addition, Annex 1 is amended in a few points and minor editorial changes are made.

Based on Art. 21 para. 9 Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (the so-called EU Market Surveillance Regula-tion), the EU Commission has established a procedure for the designation of Union test facilities with the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1267 (hereinafter referred to as “Regulation (EU) 2022/1267”) of 20.07.2022. The new Union test facilities introduced by the EU Market Surveillance Regulation are intended to contribute to improving laboratory capacities as well as the reliability and coherence of the tests.

On 22.07.2022, the German government submitted the draft of the Act on the Implementation of Certain Provisions of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive to the EU Commission for notification. The EWKFondsG, which is set out in Art. 1, represents the last step for the time being in the implementation of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (EU) 2019/904.

After the last revision in 2016, the EU Commission published the expected new version of the so-called Blue Guide on 29.06.2022. The “Blue Guide” serves as a central guide for the application and interpretation of European product regulations. Prominent among the amendments is Market Surveillance Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (MSR).

On June 30, 2021, the Commission published its proposal for a General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR-E) to replace the existing Directive 2001/95/EC of December 3, 2001 (the so-called General Product Safety Directive). Despite agreeing to reform European product safety law by means of regulation, the Parliament criticized the Commission’s draft in many respects and therefore introduced far-reaching proposed amendments as part of the legislative process at the end of last year.

On 15 June2022, the Ordinance on Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services under the Barrier-Free Act (Ordinance on the Barrier-Free Act – BFSGV) was issued and was promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette on 22 June 2022.