Debate: Empowering consumers for the green transition
Date: TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2023
Speaker: Biljana Borzan
Country: Belgium
Language: EN

You want products that last longer, break less often and are more easily repaired? The information will be provided to you and planned obsolescence will be banned. You want to be sure that you are doing your part by purchasing products that are truly environmentally sound? We will make sure no one can advertise their product as being green if there is no merit to these claims. Do aggressive and manipulative sales tactics by online sales services annoy you? We will ban practices that could distort or impair your free choice as a customer. All this and more we did to empower you for the green transition to make the citizens players on the common market rather than mere payers. All this was made with support from all sides of this plenary hall, from representatives of the political groups, left and right. We all want Europe that works for people. Among the many useful things we managed to secure for the citizens, some merit special mention: for example, banning early obsolescence practices when products are designed and made to break soon after the legal guarantee runs out in order to make the consumers buy new stuff. Surveys show that citizens consider cell phones – a device that has become ubiquitous – to be more affected by these practices, and that they usually break down in the second year of use. Such practices are perpetuating a vicious circle that is bad for everyone except the industry, and it makes enormous profits from the buy-use-discard consumption model. To counter this, we introduced an outright ban on early obsolescence practices. We want to make refrigerators great again. In order to make it easier for consumers to identify and purchase products that are more durable, we will introduce a new mandatory label. It will cover the legal guarantee of conformity and its voluntary extension in the form of a commercial guarantee of durability. So if a TV maker provides two years of legal warranty and an additional two years of commercial guarantee of durability, this product will bear a 2 + 2 label. In addition, if the competitor offers no commercial guarantee of durability, this label will be 2 + 0. This will induce producers to compete. When it comes to sustainability labels, we are reinforcing the certification schemes. In short, all the companies issuing such labels and certificates will have to be vetted and certified themselves by the Member State authorities. This includes a complaint system that focuses on non-compliance and insurance, and the withdrawal of the sustainability labels in such cases. We will ban environmental claims if not substantiated with evidence, such as ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘natural’, ‘biodegradable’, ‘climate neutral’ or ‘eco’. In addition, companies will no longer be able to feature carbon offsetting as an asset. In order to become empowered consumers in the green transition, the citizens need to be properly informed, and their legal rights must be protected and strengthened. We are enabling citizens to choose products that are more durable, repairable and sustainable. Companies will have to stop early obsolescence with a ban on introducing features that limit a product’s durability. They will also have to make their products more repairable than they currently are. Furthermore, we will end the jungle of false environmental claims – only certified and substantiated ecological claims will be permitted. To summarise, we want more value in citizens’ wallets and less valuable resources in the trash.