K&L and 1WEEE Services have been merged to 1cc GmbH

On September 6, 2013, the affiliated companies of K&L and 1WEEE Services have been merged to 1cc GmbH after several years of successful cooperation.

Since May 2013 already, we have been operating out of our new common office site in Holzgerlingen. Simultaneously, the opening of our U.S. subsidiary 1WEEE Services Corp. in Dallas/Texas enhances our international presence, offering especially our U.S. based clients an even better availability.

You can visit our new online presence at www.1cc-consulting.com. In our News section, we will inform you in the future about new developments at 1cc GmbH and provide you with interesting information related to environmental and copyright levies legislation as well as to our compliances services.

www.1cc-consulting.com

Submitting CLP Notifications

Based on the transition period regulated in the accession treaty to the EU, Croatian companies had to fulfil the notification requirements according to Article 40 of the CLP regulation until 1 August 2013. Until the end of this deadline, 12 companies have submitted more than 3000 notifications to the Classification and Labelling (C&L) Inventory which means an average of more than 250 notifications per company.

The obligation to notify applies to all substances that are subject to registration (manufactured or imported > 1 ton) as well as to manufactured or imported substances classified as dangerous < 1 ton as such or in a mixture. It does not apply to substances where the information on classification and labelling has already been submitted as a part of the registration dossier.

Although the obligation for notification to the C&L inventory applies already since 1 December 2010, many EU based companies, especially importers of substances that are not subject to registration or that still benefit from an extended deadline, are not aware of this requirement at all.

Companies not acting in accordance with this regulation may be fined as there are direct sanctions in place in the member states. In Germany, e.g. up to € 50.000 can be fined in case a notification is not submitted at all, not in time, not correctly, incomplete, not in the format requested or not updated according to harmonized classification decisions.

Notification is free of charge and can be easily submitted via REACH-IT.

New EU Ecodesign Regulations for Vacuum Cleaners published

The EU Commission has officially published two ecodesign regulations for vacuum cleaners on July 13, 2013: Commission Regulation (EU) No 666/2013 of 8 July 2013 implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and the Council with regard to ecodesign requirements for vacuum cleaners, and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 665/2013 of 3 May 2013 supplementing Directive 2010/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to energy labelling of vacuum cleaners. Both regulations will come into force on August 2, 2013.

According to Regulation No 666/2013, vacuum cleaners have to follow specific requirements related to energy consumption, rated input power, dust pick up on carpet, dust pick up on hard floor, dust re-emission, sound power level, durability of the hose and operational motor lifetime. In addition, manufacturers, their authorised representatives, or importers are required to follow defined information obligations.

Smartphones – high-risk area for Copyright Levies

Welcome Croatia

After the accession treaty has been signed on 9 December 2011,  today, 1 July, Croatia has become the 28th member state of the European Union.

We would like to welcome this new member state: Dobrodošli!

The accession to the EU means in particular, that European legislation will now apply in Croatia. EU regulations apply directly on the date of accession.  However, for single requirements affecting Croation based enterprises, transition periods have already been foreseen in the accession treaty.

EU directives regulating e.g. the single market concept will have to be transposed by Croatia now. The single market that offers free movement of goods in the EU and is regulated by CE directives will then be extended to Croatia as well.

Further directives as e.g. on Waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE, 2002/96/EC) or on Copyright levies (2001/29/EC) will result in national schemes, processes and collecting societies based on the requirements of the EU directives.

EU Regulation for Computers and Computer Servers published today

The European Commission has published today Commission Regulation (EU) No 617/2013 of 26 June 2013, implementing Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to ecodesign requirements for computers and computer servers. The new Implementing Measure (IM) will come into force on July 17, 2013. In the scope of Regulation No 617/2013 are the following products that can be powered directly from the mains alternating current (AC) including via an external or internal power supply:

• Desktop computers
• Integrated desktop computers
• Notebook computers
• Notebook computers (including tablet computers, slate computers and mobile thin clients)
• Desktop thin clients
• Workstations
• Mobile workstations
• Small-scale servers
• Computer servers

According to Article 3, ecodesign requirements for computers and computer servers are set out in Annex II. Ecodesign requirements will become effective in three steps: from the entry into force of the regulation, from 1 July 2014 and from 1 January 2016. Desktop computer, integrated desktop computer and notebook computer have to fulfill the requirements for lowest power state and have to offer a power management function as of the entry into force of the regulation.

Croatia’s accession to the EU: Transition periods for REACH registration

When joining the European Union on 1 July 2013, Croatian Companies have to comply with EU legislation. Therefore, specific deadlines have been set in order to have smooth and fair transition of the requirements set by e.g. the REACH regulation.

According to the accession treaty (VI a), the registration obligation does apply 6 months after the accession, on 1 January 2014. In addition, Croatian companies will have a pre-registration phase from 1 July 2013 until 1 January 2014. This pre-registration applies to phase-in substances and allows companies (manufacturers or importers based in Croatia) to benefit from the extended deadlines for registration.

As the first and second registration deadlines for phase-in-substances have already passed (1. December 2010 and 1 June 2013), specific deadlines are set for the new EU members for registration as well.

Companies based in Croatia now have to assess their obligations under REACH and may seek support advice from K&L for pre-registration and registration services.

We have moved to our new office

We are pleased to inform you that K&L GmbH now has moved to a new, more spacious office location in Holzgerlingen, very close to the former site in Tuebingen. Please update your database with our new contact details. Our new address:

K&L GmbH
GEO PARK I
Max-Eyth-Straße 35
71088 Holzgerlingen
Germany

The general phone numbers as well as our current extensions will change.
New central number:
Phone +49 7031 4 39 38 – 0
Fax +49 7031 4 39 38 – 222

For the time being, our e-mail addresses will remain unchanged.

We do our best to make this transition as smooth as possible. Should you have any question or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,
Your K&L Team

27 May 2013: K&L GmbH will move to a new office

Copyright levies – imposed in more and more countries

Source: ® Gerd Altmann www.pixelio.de

Copyright levies systems have been developing worldwide as a standard element of legislation. In Europe, nearly all member states have implemented such a system or are discussing to do so. Croatia which is expected to join the EU on July 1, 2013, or the candidate country Turkey have already implemented fully working copyright levies systems. The same is applicable for Switzerland and Iceland.