2023 year in review

2023 was a year of reform – the most active year of regulatory change we’ve seen in the products law space, with impacts that will be felt by product stakeholders for years to come. New requirements will need to be understood, and any required changes to products and processes will need to be planned and implemented. Below is our roundup of some of the highlights.

For the European Union, a number of really significant pieces of legislation completed the legislative process in 2023 and are now firmly on the books. These will start to apply after various transition periods:

Provisional (political) agreement was reached by the co-legislators on the text of a large number of legislative proposals in 2023 – with agreement on many of these happening at trilogue negotiations in December.  These pieces of legislation still have a few hurdles to clear before they complete the lawmaking process, which we expect to happen early this year ahead of the European Parliament elections in June 2024:

  • The proposed AI Act
  • The proposed revision of the Product Liability Directive
  • The proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation
  • The proposed Cyber Resilience Act
  • The proposed Directive amending Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition
  • The proposed Critical Raw Materials Act
  • The proposed targeted amendments to the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive
  • The proposed revision of the Construction Products Regulation
  • The proposed revision of the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Chemical Substances and Mixtures Regulation
  • The proposed revision of the Environmental Crime Directive
  • The proposed new Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

There are a number of significant proposals still in the pipeline, and the race is on to see if provisional agreement can be reached and approved by the full European Parliament ahead of the European Parliament elections. These include:

  • The proposed Right to Repair Directive
  • The proposed Directive on Green Claims
  • The proposed revision of the Toy Safety Directive
  • The proposed revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive
  • The proposed EU ban on forced labour
  • The proposed package of Customs Reform measures
  • The proposed targeted amendment of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive
  • The proposed Artificial Intelligence Liability Directive – where work was put on hold in the European Parliament and Council in 2023 pending progress on the AI Act
  • The proposed regulation on circularity requirements for vehicle design and management of end-of-life vehicles

It’s already starting to look likely that several of these files will not complete the process in time.

Outside of the EU, the UK has been navigating its way through the new post-Brexit world with a number of significant developments, including:

  • Publication of the long-awaited consultation on the UK Product Safety Review
  • An announcement for plans to extend recognition of certain products that meet EU requirements “indefinitely” beyond the upcoming December 2024 deadline for the GB market 
  • Regulations made laying down new cybersecurity requirements for consumer connected products under the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act
  • Introduction of the proposed Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill into the UK Parliament
  • Publication of the AI White Paper, detailing the UK’s proposed approach to regulating artificial intelligence
  • Completion of the lawmaking process for the Online Safety Act, with the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the UK’s communications regulator, now working on draft codes and guidance
  • Consultations on various proposals – including on draft regulations to revise the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007

The above is just the tip of the iceberg – with much more happening than we can list here.

What to expect in 2024

Whilst 2024 is an election year for the EU and the UK (although a date for the UK General Election is yet to be announced), it still looks set to be another big year.

In the EU, the legislative proposals where provisional agreement was reached in 2023 are expected to complete the lawmaking process – with the countdown starting on the transition periods.

The European Commission will be working on various pieces of secondary legislation and guidance to implement these and other new laws. This includes a number of proposed implementing acts and implementing decisions, plus guidance for the General Product Safety Regulation.

We’ll be closely following the preparation of delegated acts under the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation – with proposals in the pipeline expected to be presented in 2024 (one in particular to look out for is the proposed revision of the ecodesign rules for external power supplies), along with work starting for new product groups.

Whilst preparatory work to roll out the Digital Product Passport system has already started, this also will ramp up following entry into force of the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation that lays down the framework.

We also expect PFAS to remain a big focus – with work preparing a proposed restriction in the EU continuing.

The European Commission also is working on various non-legislative initiatives to complement upcoming laws, such as the proposed AI Pact and the proposed EU code of conduct on age – appropriate design.

The evaluation of EU consumer laws is scheduled to be published by the European Commission, with the addictive use of digital products  one of the issues being explored. This issue also is firmly on the radar in the European Parliament.

Once the dust has settled following the European Parliament elections and appointment of commissioners, the newly elected Parliament will need to decide how it wants to proceed with any legislative files that did not complete the legislative process before the elections. The European Commission also will set out its new work programme. We’ll be following this closely to see what is decided for the files that didn’t make it through the process, along with what is included in the European Commission’s new work programme – such as the proposed revision of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation which was originally planned for 2023 but was not presented.

In the UK, work looks set to continue on a number of fronts. There are too many to list here – but some of the ones to look out for include:

  • The government’s response to the UK Product Safety Review detailing the policies it plans to take forwards, expected in the first half of 2024, along with a legislative proposal to introduce e-labelling 
  • Legislation to formalise the announcement to indefinitely extend recognition of certain goods that meet EU requirements beyond the 31 December 2024 deadline
  • The government’s response to the consultation on the AI White Paper
  • The long-awaited consultation on a review of the UK battery legislation

Alongside these changes, we also expect the focus on enforcement and international co-operation to continue.

It all makes for challenging times ahead for stakeholders.

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