Directive 2024/884 - Amendment of Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) - Main contents

Official Journal

of the European Union

EN

Series L

2024/884

19.3.2024

Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) entered into force on 13 August 2012, and replaced Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4).

Photovoltaic panels, which did not fall within the scope of Directive 2002/96/EC, were included within the scope of Directive 2012/19/EU as from 13 August 2012, by means of their inclusion in category 4 of Annexes I and II, as referred to in Article 2(1), point (a), of Directive 2012/19/EU.

Article 13(1) of Directive 2012/19/EU provides that Member States are to ensure that producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) bear the costs for the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of waste EEE (WEEE) from users other than private households resulting from products placed on the market after 13 August 2005.

On 25 January 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘Court’), in its judgment in Case C-181/20 (5), declared Article 13(1) of Directive 2012/19/EU to be invalid in so far as it concerns photovoltaic panels placed on the market between 13 August 2005 and 13 August 2012, by reason of non-justified retroactive effect. The Court held that, prior to the adoption of Directive 2012/19/EU, the Union legislature left Member States the choice of requiring the costs relating to the management of waste from photovoltaic panels to be borne by current or previous waste holders or by the producer or distributor of the photovoltaic panels, pursuant to Article 14 of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). Subsequently, the Union legislature established a rule, in Article 13(1) of Directive 2012/19/EU, under which those costs are to be borne by producers in all Member States, including in relation to products which the producers had already placed on the market at a time when Directive 2008/98/EC was in force. The Court held that that rule must be regarded as applying retroactively, and is therefore liable to infringe the principle of legal certainty, and that such retroactivity invalidates it as regards photovoltaic panels placed on the market prior to the entry into force of Directive 2012/19/EU.

The Court also held in its judgment that the fact that a Member State adopted legislation contrary to a Union directive prior to the adoption of that directive does not constitute, in itself, a breach of Union law, since the achievement of the result prescribed by the directive cannot be regarded as seriously compromised before the directive forms part of the Union legal order.

The Court’s judgment directly implies that Article 13(1) of Directive 2012/19/EU should be amended so that it does not apply with regard to waste from photovoltaic panels from users other than private households placed on the market between 13 August 2005 and 13 August 2012. Furthermore, in light of the considerations set out in the Court’s judgment, it is necessary to amend Directive 2012/19/EU also...