Various organisations have filed a complaint with the BAFA against a well-known textile discounter for violations of the German Supply Chain Act. On the other hand, the opposition in the Bundestag has failed with its supply chain initiatives.

In order to adequately safeguard the policy objectives, the mandate ensures that the investigation and assessment obligations are extended if objective and verifiable information indicates that there are negative impacts that go beyond the direct business partners.

Countries such as Austria, where the forest area is growing, would be penalised, while countries with actual deforestation are not classified as high-risk areas. The introduction of a "zero-risk category" is being called for.

The key question is how companies should behave during the transition period, as current law imposes requirements but changes are foreseeable.

Under pressure from the EPP, the EU Commission has suspended the Green Claims negotiations for the time being. However, the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (EmpCo) Directive has already entered into force on 26 March 2024, and its rules must be applied from 27 September 2026.

In future, chemical substances such as those in toys, food and pesticides are to be assessed in a standardised manner. The aim is to recognise risks earlier, reduce the burden on authorities and improve the protection of people and the environment.

The VERE Association welcomes the appointment of Gitta Connemann as the Federal Government's Commissioner for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Today more than ever, SMEs need her hands-on personality, which is always focussed on the matter in hand rather than ideology.

The core element of the Omnibus IV proposal is a postponement of the date of application of the due diligence obligations under the EU Batteries Regulation by 2 years. This time should give those affected the opportunity to prepare themselves better (e.g. with guidelines) or time to set up notified bodies and recognised systems.

In addition to energy consumption, from 20 June 2025 additional information must be provided on drop resistance, ease of repair and protection against water and foreign objects.

The EU Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) rejects simplifications to the CSRD and CSDDD and calls for the existing thresholds for company size to be retained and for almost all proposed changes to be cancelled.

The VERE e.V. expressly welcomes the consideration of the criticism previously expressed by the association regarding the amount of the security deposit for industrial batteries, in addition to the clearly expressed points of criticism. VERE points out, among other things, that the placing of industrial batteries on the market becomes more expensive due to…

The new EU Single Market Strategy focuses on removing the "Terrible Ten", i.e. the ten most harmful barriers reported by businesses, including in particular fragmented rules on packaging, labelling and waste (rank 6) and lack of product compliance (rank 7). Here you will find the most important proposed actions.

The blocking of individual ASINs, warnings under competition law, fines and account blocking can be the result if there is no ElektroG registration or WEEE numbers are incorrectly assigned.

If certain limit values are exceeded, a so-called "declaration of completeness" must be submitted to the Foundation Central Agency Packaging Register (ZSVR) by 15 May of the following year at the latest. Failure to submit a declaration of completeness can be penalised with fines of up to 100,000 euros.

MEPs are in favour of a new threshold of 50 tonnes, which would exempt the vast majority (90%) of importers – mainly small and medium-sized enterprises and private individuals – who import only small quantities of CBAM goods.

The ECB warns of the negative consequences of a planned 80 per cent reduction in the scope of the CSRD. According to the ECB, this would restrict access to important information and could have undesirable consequences, such as less information on greenhouse gas emissions.

"Authorised Representative in an EPR and Compliance Context" is the topic on Friday, 20/06/2025, at 10 a.m. live in our free online compliance talk with our expert Magdalena Barylska from take-e-way. You will have the opportunity to talk to other affected parties in person. The event will be held in English due to the extent to which our foreign customers in…

The German battery registration board has published information on the security deposit for batteries depending on battery type, chemical composition, disposal costs and return rate. It can be assumed that the authorised take-back systems will pass on the costs for the security deposit to the system participants.