Deal on new EU rules to make sustainable products the norm

Parliament and Council negotiators agreed on an update to the so-called “ecodesign” regulation that aims to improve various aspects of products throughout their lifecycle to make them more durable and reliable, easier to reuse, upgrade, repair and recycle, use less resources, energy and water. Specific product requirements will be outlined by the Commission through secondary legislation.

Negotiators agreed that ecodesign requirements should also address practices associated with premature obsolescence (when a product becomes non-functional or less performant due to, for example, product design features, unavailability of consumables and spare parts, lack of software updates).