The European Union and Germany aim to achieve climate neutrality and to increase the protection of the environment and human rights. The reach this objective, the European economy will be gradually transformed ecologically, economically and socially sustainable. In addition, a change from linear protection to a circular economy is strived. For this purpose, a new legal framework will be designed to adjust the national and European business law.
The dynamic legal changes have a significant impact on economic operators in the EU: They are obligated to fulfil complex due diligence obligations with regard to corporate sustainability, social responsibility and governance. This requires to adapt their business processes, products and international supply chains to the new legal situation. Otherwise, they could face disadvantages such as the image loss, official sanctions as fines or the exclusion from the public procurement for contracts that increasingly contain environmentally compatible criteria.
The law firm advises you on the legal requirements and standards of sustainability requirements and supports the implementation of the statutory provisions in your enterprise so you can act with legal conformity and successfully realize the green deal.
Producers, distributors and importers have to reduce the negative effects of their business activities on the society and the environment due to national and European laws.
Especially the German act on due diligence in supply chains (LkSG) provides that companies must comply with diligence obligations along their entire international value chain to reduce children and forced labour, exploitation and discrimination or environmental risks. Depending on their size, commercial sector, product range and country of their business operations, they will need to control their contractual partners, implement a supply chain management and also adapt their internal processes and compliance procedures.
The law firm accompanies you during the development of a compliant sustainability strategy so that you can meet the statutory requirements for responsible entrepreneurial behaviour and achieve the reduction of social and environmental risks in your supply chain. It offers legal support in order to implement the necessary statutory measures with legal certainty. This includes for example the establishment of a risk management and internal complaint procedures, the declaration of principles and remediation mechanisms in the event of violations that can extent to the termination of the business relationship. Furthermore, the concerned companies have to fulfil special documentation and reporting obligations and control their suppliers in relation to sustainability risks.
You also receive legal assistance by the law firm in adapting your contracts or general terms and conditions to the new regulations. It offers especially the legal design of agreements with suppliers such as confidentiality agreements, codes of conduct, documents for self-declarations, written assurances for training and professional development and also contracts on control measures, audits or monitoring.
The law firm advises you on EU-regulations and directives that may affect your sustainability management, such as the European regulation on certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation. Its rules provide that market participants that place commodities or goods with coffee, wood and cocoa on the market have to fulfil certain due diligence duties to minimise the risk of deforestation, for example by risk assessment and lodging customs declarations.
Moreover, the law firm offers legal information relating to recent legislative plans on national or European level that can have an impact on your business activities. This relates to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) that provides the implementation of due diligence duties in management systems and enterprise policies by the affected companies.
The European Union strives to improve the resource efficiency and ecological balance of products in order to achieve a reduction of product-related environmental damages and the quantity of waste.
This presupposes that the products are designed in a way that makes them durable, energy efficient and circular. Therefore, Ecodesign-regulations provide environmental requirements for a sustainable product design. Those legal conditions relate to product aspects of durability, recyclability, quantities of recycled content, biodegradability, reparability scoring, energy efficiency or the environmental footprint of goods. The requirements apply to energy related products as electrical appliances or batteries, but also comprise further product categories, such as textiles, construction products and furniture.
The Ecodesign rules have an influence on the product design of manufacturers, as they legally impose the use of greener materials and secondary raw materials.
Producers are also obliged to mark goods, packaging and labels with sustainability-related labels. In addition, a digital product passport will be introduced by which information about circularity and sustainability can be retrieved.
The law firm offers legal counselling with regard to legal duties that refer to ecological product design. It also supports you to adjust your contracts with legal conformity and accompanies your development of sustainable materials and product innovations.
The new Circular Economy Action Plan provides to design packaging environmentally friendly and to reduce packaging waste. Therefore, the statutory regulations are adjusted to that objective. Thereby, manufacturers shall produce packaging that is recyclable, reusable or compostable. In addition, they shall reduce the plastic proportion and affix special labels that refer to an environmentally compatible material separation and waste disposal.
The law firm advises producers, importers, representatives, fulfilment-providers and distributors of packaging with regard to legal regulations for sustainable packaging design and labelling. Furthermore, it provides legal advice concerning the extended producer responsibility that obligates producers and distributors to participate in deposit and return systems to facilitate the recycling and re-use of packaging. Therefore, the law firm offers information about the relevant reporting, return and registration obligations they have to fulfil.
The EU empowers consumers with new sustainability-related rights with the aim to reach a consumer behaviour that is environmentally sustainable and to reduce consumption resources. A right to repair shall enable consumers to reduce the premature obsolescence of repairable products. In addition, manufacturers shall improve the consumer information regarding durability guarantees and software updates and also facilitate the exchange of compensable elements such as batteries dung their lifespan. Moreover, criteria for the admissibility of environmental claims are established to avoid greenwashing.
The legal changes increase the risk of liability and expenses for warranties of enterprises, for example in case of repair obligations. The law firm offers legal advice in relation to those legal risks that may result from the legislative change and presents appropriate contractual options to reduce such risks.
The legal consulting services also relate to the following legal aspects:
You are welcome to get in touch with the law firm to receive more information about the legal services.