Maximilien Pallu

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European Union - EU - Brussels

The EU Green Deal announces a zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment that should be achieved, among other ways, through ambitious actions against the most hazardous chemicals and enhanced engagement in innovation for the development of safe and sustainable alternatives. One of the first deliverables of this far-reaching policy program is the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), which involves important revisions of the existing EU chemicals legislation including the Chemicals Control Regulation (REACH) and the Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (CLP).

REACH and the CLP are the two main instruments and actual cornerstones of the EU chemicals legislation. They will be simultaneously reopened and revised between now and the end of 2022, with the affirmed objective to improve the protection of people and the environment in line with the Green Deal’s ambition. While the CSS announces this revision and the reinforcement of the existing provision, it provides little clarity as to the exact scope of the revision plan. It is thus rather unclear how important such revisions are intended to be.

On May 4, 2021, the European Commission published two important roadmaps that provide insights on the intentions of the EU executive on the framework for the revised REACH and CLP. The Commission elaborates on the legal and regulatory options that it can consider. Although targeted, the options envisaged by the Commission will certainly lead to significant revisions to the REACH and CLP, and in fact may in some instances constitute a real shift in paradigm.

Continue reading for additional background on the roadmaps and the implications for REACH and CLP in the future.Continue Reading EU Green Deal: EC Releases Roadmaps Toward an Ambitious Revision of REACH and CLP

Asset Management

The EU Green Deal announces the circular economy goal, which can only be achieved with the full mobilization of society and industry through the implementation of an integral EU policy for sustainability. Products and services should progressively become more “sustainable”, “environmentally friendly” and “green” and, ultimately, more respectful to the environment and society.

In line with this new trend, more and more companies advertise their products using a wide variety of “sustainability” and “green claims” (we note that the two terms do not have the same meaning, but will not focus on this distinction in the present short overview). Consumers often report being lost when navigating among all these numerous ecological labels, sustainability certification schemes and various self-made claims. Inevitably, this difficulty has a negative impact on brand credibility, the level playing field among the operators on the market and the overall level of consumer trust.

In such context, the European Commission has announced that companies will soon have to substantiate any sustainability or green claims they use in line with new harmonized EU rules and, most likely, a standard EU methodology capable of assessing, in a uniform manner, the impacts of products and services on the environment. These rules may also be accompanied by specific EU measures against “greenwashing”, possibly including sanctions. The forthcoming legislation should ensure fair competition on the EU market and boost the consumers’ trust.

In this Blog Post, we discuss important considerations for any company advertising sustainability or green claims, as well as the coming EU regulation in this space.Continue Reading Advertising “Sustainability” and “Green Claims” in Products and Services in the EU: Fancy Commercial Practice Can Be a Real Legal Challenge

Environmental

Recently celebrating the 10th anniversary of its entry into force, the Nagoya Protocol is a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992, which seeks to facilitate the protection of biodiversity globally. Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (Parties) have committed to so-called “Access and Benefit Sharing” (ABS) principles regarding the acquisition and utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

In a nutshell, access to those resources is conditioned upon obtaining the prior informed consent of authorities in the country of origin. Resources should then be used according to “Mutually Agreed Terms”, which shall include benefit sharing mechanisms with the country of origin.

This structure places concrete obligations on any company dealing with nature-based products and, notably, a need to obtain appropriate administrative authorizations and set up contractual arrangements toward benefit sharing. Beyond that, the key driver for compliance is to avoid the reputational costs associated with possible allegations of bio-piracy. Given the complexity of the global supply chains involved, global compliance is a challenge.

In this Blog Post, we discuss the practical implications of the Protocol on international businesses and their supply chains.Continue Reading The Nagoya Protocol & Access and Benefit Sharing: Organizing the Supply Chain Toward Protection of Biodiversity Globally