Brussels, 18/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission approved, on 15 June, the contracts concluded by the French company Eco-Emballages SA concerning the running of its system of selective collection and recovery of household packaging waste. Through this decision, it defines for the first time the principals of competition, which such collective systems must respect.
Eco-Emballages, established in France, is a complex system of selective collection and recovery of household packaging waste. 9,500 companies marketing products pay it a financial contribution in return for their having their legal obligations in the area of recycling of packaging discharged. Eco-Emballages redistributes its revenues to local authorities responsible for collecting household waste in their respective local areas. These contributions are intended to contribute to the extra cost resulting from the selective collection and sorting of these wastes. The local authorities sell the sorted materials to industrial firms responsible for their recovery.
Following a warning from the Commission in January 2000, Eco-Emballages modified certain clauses concerning the duration and scope of the "producer", "local authority" and "sectoral" type contracts (for the industrial firms responsible for the recovery) as well as the granting of sub-contracts for the use of the "green dot", the logo printed on packaging. In this case, Eco-Emballages accepted to modify its contracts and to give assurances so that their duration and scope do not restrict competition. In fact, a producer may leave the system on each anniversary date of the contract. It may also contract for part or all of its packaging. A local authority may also terminate its contract with the system and contract for part or all of the packaging-waste collected. Eco-Emballages also provides the possibility to use the "green dot" logo to all those, which legitimately need it in their commercial activity.
Through this decision to accept the Eco-Emballages contractual system, the Commission sets the principals of competition to be respected by the services of this kind, while taking into account the environmental requirements: it accepts, for example, that the companies call on their partners to act without failure in the recovery of household packaging. However, it considers unjustified that the exclusive clauses cannot be imposed on partners. This aims, on the one hand, to allow a competitors to offer move effective services, better adapted to needs and better from the point of view of those requiring them; on the other hand, the Commission's aim is also to allow the producer who should so wish to establish for part of its packaging an individual system, while using the collective system for the remainder.
This decision does not contradict any part of the position taken by the Commission in the DSD case, which only concerns an aspect of the contract for the use of the "green dot" in Germany (see EUROPE of 21 April, p.10).