{"id":25646,"date":"2021-04-16T13:50:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T11:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/php8.plastv.de\/?p=25646"},"modified":"2021-04-15T14:30:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T12:30:35","slug":"25646","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/?p=25646","title":{"rendered":"PACCOR brought an action for annulment against the new EU marking specifications for single-use beverage cups"},"content":{"rendered":"

On<\/span> 11 <\/span>March<\/span> 2021,<\/span> PACCOR,<\/span> a leading<\/span> global<\/span> player<\/span> in the<\/span> packaging<\/span> industry,<\/span> and<\/span> six<\/span> other<\/span> plastic<\/span> packaging <\/span>manufacturers,<\/span> united<\/span> via<\/span> their<\/span> national<\/span> trade<\/span> associations,<\/span> brought<\/span> an<\/span> action<\/span> for<\/span> annulment<\/span> before<\/span> the<\/span> EU<\/span>General<\/span> Court<\/span> under<\/span> Article<\/span> 263 <\/span>TFEU<\/span> against<\/span> the<\/span> new<\/span> marking<\/span> specif<\/span>ications<\/span> for<\/span> single<\/span>-use<\/span> beverage<\/span> cups<\/span>wholly<\/span> or<\/span> partially<\/span> made<\/span> from<\/span> plastic<\/span> as<\/span> defined<\/span> in the<\/span> Commission<\/span> Implementing<\/span> Regulation<\/span> 2020\/2151<\/span> (\u201cIR<\/span>2020\/2151\u201d)<\/span> of 17 December<\/span> 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span> principle<\/span> of this<\/span> marking<\/span> requirement<\/span> is derived<\/span> from<\/span> Article<\/span> 7 of the <\/span>Sing<\/span>le-Use<\/span> Plastic<\/span> Directive<\/span> (EU)<\/span> 2019\/904<\/span> (\u201cSUPD\u201d). <\/span>The co<\/span>-applicants, PACCOR, Flo, Dopla, ILIP, Aristea, Dart, and Intraplas<\/span>, are fully committed to the objectives of <\/span>the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Policy and have in this respect adopted various <\/span>sustainability initiatives. As an industry, they aim to achieve a high level of recycled materials in their beverage <\/span>cups and recycling of their beverage cups after use. It follows that the beverage cups and packaging thereof are <\/span>already placed on the market in the EU with symbols and markings used widely by the packaging and food <\/span>contact materials industry, to allow an<\/span>d encourage proper disposal, sorting and recycling thereof. <\/span>The co<\/span>-applicants are of the view that the marking specifications for beverage cups now established by the <\/span>Commission in the IR 2020\/2151 are unnecessary and unsuitable to achieve the aim of the SUPD, which is to <\/span>prevent and reduce the impact of beverage cups on the environment, in particular the aquatic environment, due <\/span>to littering by consumers, as well as to promote the transition to a circular economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, despite the Com<\/span>mission\u2019s analysis that plastic items represent a significant volume of the marine <\/span>littering, beverage cups have been found to be only 35th on the list of items most widely found on beaches. In <\/span>this respect the co<\/span>-applicants also observe that the impact as<\/span>sessment that was made by the EU legislator <\/span>prior to the adoption of the SUPD, and notably Article 7 there of, does not address beverage cups. <\/span>Moreover, the additional markings adopted by the Commission for beverage cups (pictograms and information <\/span>phrases<\/span> about the presence of plastic) are likely to mislead consumers about the correct action to perform after <\/span>use of the cup. Hence, they risk being counter<\/span>-productive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The co<\/span>-applicants further consider that the required written indications \u201cMade of Plastics\u201d<\/span> or \u201cPlastic in <\/span>Product\u201d in the respective official languages of the Member State where a beverage cup is placed on the <\/span>market, fail to take into account the free movement of products and consumers on the internal market. As a <\/span>result, the product markings are likely to be in the language of the initial purchaser, and not that of the <\/span>consumer who will ultimately be using the cup and be responsible for disposing it responsibly. <\/span>Consequently, <\/span>the new markings are likely to fail in achieving the SUPD\u2019s objectiv<\/span>e of \u201cinforming consumers\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The markings <\/span>could also easily mislead the consumer in choosing the proper way of disposing of the cups after use, especially <\/span>with regard to beverage cups made from bioplastics or coated paper. This is considered potentially ver<\/span>y <\/span>harmful for the recycling streams in place and ultimately for the environment. The marking requirement <\/span>paradoxically fails to achieve the purposes of the SUPD and those of the European Green Deal and the Circular <\/span>Economy Policy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the new mark<\/span>ing required is disproportionate for beverage cups made entirely of <\/span>plastic, since consumers are already aware that they drink from a plastic cup. The Commission failed to have <\/span>recourse to the least onerous option even though it had a clear choice regarding alternative measures that <\/span>could have been adopted.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the objective?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The aim of the action is to establish the unlawfulness of the marking requirements set forth in the IR 2020\/2151 <\/span>for beverage cups, and the annulment thereof. The co<\/span>-applicants see<\/span>k to push the Commission to reconsider <\/span>the markings now imposed for beverage cups in order to have justified and appropriate other, better, measures <\/span>in place, and actions taken, to effectively encourage the recycling and recallability of beverage cups part<\/span>ially <\/span>and wholly made of plastic and to reduce marine littering of single use plastic products. The co<\/span>-applicants <\/span>consider that the Commission should promote already existing sectoral approaches that prove effective, <\/span>promote the right behavioural attitude <\/span>of consumers and provide a sound legal environment for and with <\/span>manufacturers, traders, recyclers all along the value<\/span>-chain, and work together towards the circularity of single <\/span>use products that are made wholly or partially out of plastics. In this respect<\/span> the co<\/span>-applicants also consider <\/span>that Article 7 SUPD should be reconsidered, because beverage cups are arguably unlawfully added to the <\/span>products made subject to marking obligations as defined therein.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The annulment action does not have suspensive effect,<\/span> so the marking obligations must still be applied from 3 <\/span>July 2021 until the final judgment. Irrespective of the option to seek interim relief in this respect, the aim of the <\/span>seven plastic packaging manufacturers is notably also to make other players in th<\/span>e value chain, such as <\/span>retailers, brand owners, foodservice companies, aware of the impact that the markings can have also on their <\/span>operations. Once the formal announcement of the present action for annulment is published in the EU\u2019s Official <\/span>Journal, inte<\/span>rested third parties can apply to the EU General Court to be admitted to the proceedings as <\/span>interveners. To do so, they must show a \u201clegitimate interest\u201d in the outcome of the proceedings.<\/span><\/div>\n
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A judgment from the EU General Court is expected in approximately 2<\/span> years\u2019 time.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 11 March 2021, PACCOR, a leading global player in the packaging industry, and six other plastic packaging manufacturers, united via their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,16],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-25646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plas-tv-meldungen-auf-der-startseite-unterhalb-slider","category-plast-tv-textmeldungen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25646"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25650,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25646\/revisions\/25650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25646"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plas.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=25646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}