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Rachel MacLeod

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Last week, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and HM Treasury launched a public consultation on the introduction of a UK carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), following its announcement in December 2023. The CBAM proposal forms part of the UK government’s wider strategy to tackle carbon leakage. To achieve this it will impose a carbon price on imported goods with the aim of levelling the playing field and ensuring that imported goods are subject to a…

Background On 4 March 2024 the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on a new Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (the “Regulation”). The Regulation will replace the current Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC, aiming to reduce packaging waste and introducing a range of sustainability measures including a requirement for all packaging to be recyclable by 2030. The Regulation is an integral part of the European…

The transitional phase of the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (“CBAM”) is now underway with the deadline for submitting the first CBAM quarterly reports having already passed on 31 January 2024 (although with an extension until the end of February).* The CBAM requires importers to report the embedded greenhouse gas emissions in carbon-intensive goods (initially aluminium, cement, iron and steel, electricity, fertilisers and hydrogen) and, from the commencement of the operational phase in 2026, purchase “CBAM…

The Department for Business and Trade (“DBT”) announced in a January 2024 Policy Update its intention to propose legislation in Spring 2024 which would indefinitely recognise CE marking for most types of products sold in Great Britain meaning that UKCA marking would never become mandatory for those products.  Note, as a result of the Windsor Framework Agreement, CE marking was to remain mandatory for the Northern Ireland market in any event. The indefinite extension of…

The first filings under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) must be submitted by importers by 31 January 2024. CBAM is the EU’s landmark tool that seeks to put a fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of carbon intensive goods that enter the EU. It requires importers to report ’embedded emissions’ of certain products and of electricity imported into the EU in order to ensure equivalent carbon pricing for imported and EU…

In brief The new EU Deforestation Regulation (2023/1115/EU) will impose due diligence obligations from 30 December 2024 aimed at tackling deforestation and forest degradation. The Regulation will require companies dealing in in-scope products to undertake due diligence into the source of a wide range of commodities, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm-oil, rubber, soya and wood, to ensure that they have not been obtained as a result of deforestation. You can access a recording of our recent webinar…

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new online content hub, the Product Risk Radar. The hub includes the latest important legal developments in product regulatory and liability risk impacting the UK and EU and we will post regular updates to help you navigate this increasingly challenging landscape. The areas covered include regulatory requirements, product liability and market surveillance and general product safety.

On 25 July 2023 the UK government announced that increased extended producer responsibility (“EPR”) fees for packaging waste will be deferred by a year from October 2024 to 2025. In the same week the government also launched a consultation on the draft legislation to implement the new EPR regime which will include the introduction of mandatory packaging recyclability markings for the UK market. The current producer responsibility regime for packaging waste has been operational in…

On 28 July 2023, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries (“Batteries Regulation”) was published in the Official Journal. The new Regulation repeals and replaces the existing Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC) and seeks to make all batteries placed on the EU market more durable, safe, sustainable, and efficient. It takes the extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime created by the existing Directive and expands it significantly through the introduction of more detailed mandatory design, content and conformity assessment…