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On 15.09.2022, the Commission published its proposal for a regulation on horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, the “Cyber Resilience Act” (hereinafter “CRA-E”). As the first European legal act of its kind, it will introduce mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements throughout their lifecycle.

On 05.08.2022, the German government presented the draft of the Second Act Amending the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG). Essentially, this extends the transitional period of Sec. 46 para. 2 ElektroG by 6 months. In addition, Annex 1 is amended in a few points and minor editorial changes are made.

Based on Art. 21 para. 9 Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (the so-called EU Market Surveillance Regula-tion), the EU Commission has established a procedure for the designation of Union test facilities with the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1267 (hereinafter referred to as “Regulation (EU) 2022/1267”) of 20.07.2022. The new Union test facilities introduced by the EU Market Surveillance Regulation are intended to contribute to improving laboratory capacities as well as the reliability and coherence of the tests.

On 22.07.2022, the German government submitted the draft of the Act on the Implementation of Certain Provisions of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive to the EU Commission for notification. The EWKFondsG, which is set out in Art. 1, represents the last step for the time being in the implementation of the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (EU) 2019/904.

After the last revision in 2016, the EU Commission published the expected new version of the so-called Blue Guide on 29.06.2022. The “Blue Guide” serves as a central guide for the application and interpretation of European product regulations. Prominent among the amendments is Market Surveillance Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (MSR).

On June 30, 2021, the Commission published its proposal for a General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR-E) to replace the existing Directive 2001/95/EC of December 3, 2001 (the so-called General Product Safety Directive). Despite agreeing to reform European product safety law by means of regulation, the Parliament criticized the Commission’s draft in many respects and therefore introduced far-reaching proposed amendments as part of the legislative process at the end of last year.

On 15 June2022, the Ordinance on Accessibility Requirements for Products and Services under the Barrier-Free Act (Ordinance on the Barrier-Free Act – BFSGV) was issued and was promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette on 22 June 2022.

The EU Parliament, Council of Ministers and Commission have agreed on a proposal published by the Commission in September 2021 to amend Directive 2014/53/EU (the so-called EU Wireless Equipment Directive). It is expected that from mid-2024 smartphones and devices with compara-ble power requirements will have to have a USB-C charging interface and support the fast-charging protocol USB Power Delivery.

Already last year, the EU announced the creation of a Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), as so far no sufficient legal framework exists that anchors specific cyber security requirements for the entire life cycle of a digital product. The proposed legislation serves to strengthen consumer protection and the EU’s competitiveness in the area of digitalisation (of products).