Review of Legislative Acts
Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products
This Regulation establishes a framework for setting ecodesign requirements for specific product groups to significantly improve their circularity, energy performance, and other environmental sustainability aspects. It introduces the Digital Product Passport, which requires manufacturers to provide detailed information on product durability, reparability, and material composition to ensure transparency for consumers and supply chain actors. The text mandates the phase-out of the destruction of unsold consumer goods and empowers the Commission to set specific performance and information requirements across various industrial sectors.
Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD)
The Directive mandates that large companies identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for adverse human rights and environmental impacts within their own operations, their subsidiaries, and their established business relationships. It imposes obligations on companies to adopt and implement a transition plan for climate change mitigation to ensure their business model is compatible with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The legislation requires the implementation of a complaints mechanism and establishes civil liability for companies that fail to comply with their due diligence obligations, leading to damage caused by an adverse impact.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act)
This act introduces a comprehensive regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, categorizing AI systems based on risk levels. It imposes strict requirements on “high-risk” AI systems, including obligations for risk management, data governance, transparency, and human oversight. The regulation explicitly prohibits certain AI practices deemed to pose an unacceptable risk, such as cognitive behavioral manipulation or untargeted scraping of facial images. Furthermore, it sets transparency requirements for general-purpose AI models, requiring providers to document and disclose information regarding the training process and copyright compliance.
