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National leadership for legislating longer product lifetimes: French policies and their interaction with European Union policies

Dalhammar, Carl LU ; Vonderscher, Flavie ; Leonet, Sandar and Richter, Jessika Luth LU orcid (2025) 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference
Abstract
Currently, the European Union (EU) is the “green leader”, globally, in adopting policies to support longer product lifetimes. One reason for this state of affairs is that EU Member States are adopting progressive policies, which put pressure on the EU to set EU-wide laws to replace national ones. The main reason for this situation is that national rules may lead to distortions in trade in the EU Single Market, as corporations will find it difficult to be able to comply with different national rules and would prefer EU-wide standards. Currently, France is the undisputed leader in adopting policies for longer lifetimes, through policies including criminalization of planned obsolescence, modulated fees, repair policies, banning destruction of... (More)
Currently, the European Union (EU) is the “green leader”, globally, in adopting policies to support longer product lifetimes. One reason for this state of affairs is that EU Member States are adopting progressive policies, which put pressure on the EU to set EU-wide laws to replace national ones. The main reason for this situation is that national rules may lead to distortions in trade in the EU Single Market, as corporations will find it difficult to be able to comply with different national rules and would prefer EU-wide standards. Currently, France is the undisputed leader in adopting policies for longer lifetimes, through policies including criminalization of planned obsolescence, modulated fees, repair policies, banning destruction of unsold products, and national indexes for repairability and durability of products. When the EU adopts similar policies, this can have several positive implications, but there can also be negative effects, for instance that the EU rules are less progressive than the national ones. The aim of this paper is to discuss the key benefits and drawbacks with EU harmonization of national rules, using France as an example. This paper maps the key French policies supporting longer product lifetimes and the upcoming EU rules aiming for EU-wide harmonization. Finally, we describe one policy where EU rules are likely to be less progressive than the French ones, mandatory repair information to consumers, to exemplify key trade-offs with harmonization. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Proceedings of the 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE2025)
conference name
6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference
conference location
Aalborg, Denmark
conference dates
2025-07-02 - 2025-07-04
ISBN
97887-7642-060-4
DOI
10.54337/plate2025-10307
project
Mapping out and overcoming barriers for circular products: the policy context for corporations that want to “go circular”
Organizing for Activities of Re-: action-nets that give more than one life to consumer products and their components
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
58d45506-66bd-4652-a67b-c976c2228ca0
date added to LUP
2025-12-10 14:02:37
date last changed
2025-12-12 08:54:38
@inproceedings{58d45506-66bd-4652-a67b-c976c2228ca0,
  abstract     = {{Currently, the European Union (EU) is the “green leader”, globally, in adopting policies to support longer product lifetimes. One reason for this state of affairs is that EU Member States are adopting progressive policies, which put pressure on the EU to set EU-wide laws to replace national ones. The main reason for this situation is that national rules may lead to distortions in trade in the EU Single Market, as corporations will find it difficult to be able to comply with different national rules and would prefer EU-wide standards. Currently, France is the undisputed leader in adopting policies for longer lifetimes, through policies including criminalization of planned obsolescence, modulated fees, repair policies, banning destruction of unsold products, and national indexes for repairability and durability of products. When the EU adopts similar policies, this can have several positive implications, but there can also be negative effects, for instance that the EU rules are less progressive than the national ones. The aim of this paper is to discuss the key benefits and drawbacks with EU harmonization of national rules, using France as an example. This paper maps the key French policies supporting longer product lifetimes and the upcoming EU rules aiming for EU-wide harmonization. Finally, we describe one policy where EU rules are likely to be less progressive than the French ones, mandatory repair information to consumers, to exemplify key trade-offs with harmonization.}},
  author       = {{Dalhammar, Carl and Vonderscher, Flavie and Leonet, Sandar and Richter, Jessika Luth}},
  booktitle    = {{Proceedings of the 6th Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference (PLATE2025)}},
  isbn         = {{97887-7642-060-4}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{National leadership for legislating longer product lifetimes: French policies and their interaction with European Union policies}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.54337/plate2025-10307}},
  doi          = {{10.54337/plate2025-10307}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}