WEEE Recast Directive 2012/19/EU: Some states are still missing

EU Member States have to adopt national laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the new Directive 2012/19/EU of 4 July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE Recast Directive). The deadline for transposition was 14 February 2014. Today, one year after that day, only 20 of the states have adopted the necessary legal provisions. In Belgium only one of the three regions, namely Flanders, has transposed the Recast. Cyprus, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain only have drafts available. In Slovenia not even a draft has been published yet.

1cc präsentiert auf dem IERC Kongress in Salzburg

Vom 21. – 23.01.2015 findet in Salzburg der „14. International Electronics Recycling Congress” (IERC) statt. Auf dieser internationalen Plattform werden die neuesten Entwicklungen und Herausforderungen zum Thema WEEE weltweit diskutiert. Sowohl die 1cc als auch die 1cc-Tochter WEEElogic werden in Salzburg mit einem Expertenvortrag vertreten sein. Datum: 21. Januar 2015, 16.30 – 17.00 Uhr Thema: “Who owns the waste – Makes the profit? Producer responsibility – Time for an overdue paradigm shift?” Referent: Michael Krug, 1cc Raum: Europe Datum: 22. Januar 2015, 11.00 – 12.00 Uhr Thema: “Towards harmonisation – Private European initiative filling the gap of WEEE2” Referenten: Meike Ruoff and Romain Letenneur, WEEElogic GmbH Raum: Mozart Weitere Informationen: www.icm.ch/ierc-2015

Copyright Levies: Cascade of levy system abolishments to be expected?

While some countries around the world have created or expanded on their existing copyright levy systems, another European country has abolished its system as of January 1, 2015: Finland repealed the legal basis of the copyright levies on blank media & recording devices. Instead, the authors will be compensated via a fund paid out of the state budget. After the Finnish levy tariffs have remained unchanged for the last two years, the parliament voted in December to replace the Copyright Levy system by a government fund. From now on, no copyright levies should be paid anymore in Finland. In 2012 the Spanish Government decided to abolish its copyright levy system, establishing and replacing it by a different one, comparable to the Norwegian system, where levies are calculated into the state budget. In Estonia, a similar system is now in the planning phase. Basically, device- and media-based copyright levy systems are a matter of fervent controversies in all countries in which they are implemented. Nevertheless, their abolishment can be considered critical: The question of (the estimated) harm for right holders caused by private copying remains and, with it, the question of its compensation. A state budget being nothing but tax revenue, every author would rely on government aid. In fact, the harm is to be taken into account and, in the absence of a copyright levy system, he will simply be financed from other sources. The authorities will raise their claims elsewhere. Does it have anything to do with the fact that the Spanish authority tried to claim excessive fees for licensing recently? It seems as if the controversy just shifted somewhere else.