Home / Publications / Spotlight on Sustainability II December 2021 - Consumer... / Climate law and resilience: Consuming and selling...

Climate law and resilience: Consuming and selling sustainability

The Law 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021 on combating climate change and strengthening resilience to its effects ("Climate and Resilience Law") is in line with the Citizens' Climate Convention by partially taking up its proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 (compared to 1990), and in line with the Paris Agreement ratified on 5 October 2016 and the Green Pact for Europe. The objective of the Climate and Resilience Law is to accelerate the "greening" of business and consumer behaviour, and it includes a large number of measures concerning consumer law and commercial and sales practices. The following is an overview of the law's main provisions.

Note: the numerous provisions concerning the regulation of advertising will be the subject of a future release.

Although the law came into force on 25 August 2021, most of its provisions presented are subject to the publication of a decree or are deferred to a later date. But experimental phases are also planned.

Obligation to display environmental information on goods and services (Article 2 of the law)

Article 2 of the law concerns the generalisation of mandatory environmental displays of goods and services with priority to the clothing sector. This will take place after a period of experimentation lasting a maximum of five years, which will begin on 22 February 2022 in the clothing, food, furniture, hotel and electronic product sectors. During this period, the experimental nature of the display will have to be indicated in its immediate vicinity.

Once the experimental and evaluation phase is over, a decree will fix the list of categories of goods and services for which environmental displays will be compulsory and will specify the procedures for each of these categories. Voluntary displays for other products and services will have to meet the same requirements (art. L. 541-9-12 of the new French Environment Code).

The purpose of the display will be to provide consumers with information on environmental impact or on both environmental impact and compliance with social criteria of the goods and services placed on the national market. Essentially, this information will have to show the environmental impact of goods and services during their life cycle, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, in a reliable and easily understandable way for the consumer (Art. L. 541-9-11 of the new French Environment Code).

Failure to comply with the display obligation will be punishable by an administrative fine of EUR 3,000 for a natural person and EUR 15,000 for a legal person (Art. L. 541-9-14 of the French Environment Code). The same fine will be incurred in the event of the use or publication of a non-compliant display, as these practices are expressly prohibited (Art. L. 541-9-15 of the new French Environment Code).

Conditions for the use of environmental labels (Art. 4, 275 and 276 of the law)

Product origin. Article 4 makes it a misleading commercial practice to use the words "made in France" or "French origin" or any other words (such as "made in France"), signs or symbols (e.g. French flag) without complying with the conditions required by the European Customs Code on the non-preferential origin of products (Art. L. 121-2, 2° b modified of the French Consumer Code).

Fair trade. Article 275 provides a stricter framework for the use of the term 'fair trade' in the sales name of products (Art. 60 amended law n° 2005-882 of 2 August 2005):

  • by including in the definition of fair trade the obligation for each company involved in this sector to promote production and operating methods that respect the environment and biodiversity, such as agro-ecology when it comes to food sectors;
  • by making the use of the term "fair trade" in a name conditional on obtaining a label or a guarantee system as of 1 January 2023. The guarantee systems and fair trade labels will be recognised, for a renewable period of three years, by the national platform of global actions for corporate social responsibility (to be set up).

Private labels. Article 276 regulates the use of private labels for agricultural, forestry, food and seafood products. These private labels, which are the result of a collective approach, must be governed by precise specifications, which guarantee a particular quality, environmentally friendly production conditions or fair remuneration for the agricultural producer, distinguishing these products from similar products usually marketed. The implementation of these specifications and the compliance of the products benefiting from the label with these standards will be subject to regular control (art. L. 640-2-1 of the new French Rural and Maritime Fishing Code).

Indication of the seasonality of fresh fruit and vegetables (Art. 277 of the law)

Any retail business of more than 400 square metres selling food products must display information on the seasonality of the fresh fruit and vegetables offered for sale throughout the year. The methods of displaying this information, which may be electronic, have yet to be laid down by regulation, particularly for fruit and vegetables produced in greenhouses, taking into account the origin of the products (Art. L. 113-3 of the new French Consumer Code).

Any failure to comply with this obligation will be punishable by an administrative fine of EUR 3,000 for natural persons and EUR 15,000 for legal persons (Art. L. 113-4 of the new French Consumer Code).

Information on waste generating products (Art. 3 of the law)

As of 1 January 2023, any failure to comply with the information obligations set out in Article L. 541-9-1 of the Environmental Code (which comes into force on 1 January 2022) will be punishable by an administrative fine of EUR 3,000 for a natural person and EUR 15,000 for a legal person (Art. L. 541-9-4-1 of the new French Environment Code).

In particular, this will concern the failure of producers and importers of waste-generating products to display the environmental qualities and characteristics of the products (incorporation of recycled material, use of renewable resources, durability, compostability, reparability, reusability, etc.), the prohibition on displaying the name and address of the producer or importer of the product, the use of the product, etc.), a ban on labelling plastic products and packaging that can only be composted in an industrial unit as "compostable", or a ban on labelling a product or packaging as "biodegradable", "environmentally friendly" or any other equivalent term.

Reduction of systematic distribution of samples (Art. 22 of the law)

By 1 July 2022, it will be forbidden to provide a consumer with a sample of a product as part of a commercial approach without the consumer's request (art. L. 541-15-10, III completed of the French Environment Code).

This anti-waste measure will not apply to press publications as long as the presence of samples in the content of the publication is indicated or visible. The act of purchasing or subscribing to the publication will in this case imply a presumption that the consumer has requested the samples. It should be noted that press publications and their facsimiles are not considered as samples.

An implementing decree specifying the notion of sample is expected.

Reduction of packaging, development of bulk sales and glass deposits (art. 23 to 25 of the law)

Packaging. As of 1 January 2025, packaging made up in whole or in part of polymers or styrenic copolymers, which cannot be recycled and cannot be integrated into a recycling system, will be prohibited (Art. 23, IV of the law; Art. L. 541-15-10, III completed according to the French Environment Code).

Use of recyclable containers. As of 1 January 2025, takeaway catering services must offer consumers the option of being served in a reusable container or one made of recyclable materials (Art. 24; Art. L. 541-15-10, III completed according to the French Environment Code).

In the meantime, on an experimental basis for a period of 18 months, commercial catering establishments, pubs and platforms facilitating the remote sale of meals or foodstuffs through the use of an electronic interface may be required to offer the end consumer delivery in a reusable and returnable container in certain municipalities designated by regulation. The appropriateness of this measure will be assessed at a later stage (Art. 24, II).

Bulk sales in shops of more than 400 square metres. As of 1 January 2030, retail outlets with a surface area of 400 square metres or more must devote at least 20% of their sales area of mass market products to the sale of products without primary packaging, including bulk sales, or a system with an equivalent effect expressed in terms of the number of references or as a proportion of turnover. A decree must specify the objectives to be achieved according to the situation (product categories, health and safety requirements, specificities of the distribution networks) as well as the adaptations required in the practices of producers, distributors and consumers (Art. 23, II).

In the meantime, provision is made for a three-year experiment, starting on a date to be determined by order of the Minister for the Environment, to assess the methods of developing the sale of products without primary packaging in retail shops with a surface area of less than 400 square metres (Art. 23, IV).

Glass deposit. For products placed on the French market, the compulsory introduction of deposit systems for the reuse of glass will only take place in the event of a positive overall environmental balance, taking into account the distance the packaging must travel to be reused. This assessment will be made on the basis of an evaluation carried out before 1 January 2023 in consultation with the professions concerned and the Observatory for Reuse (to be created) (Art. 25; Art. L. 541-9-10 amended and L. 541-10-11 of the new French Environment Code).

Extended producer responsibility (Art. 28 and 29 of the law)

The application of the principle of extended producer responsibility to packaging used to market products consumed or used by professionals with a catering activity has been postponed by two years, from 1 January 2021 to 1 January 2023 (Art. 28; Art. L. 541-10-1, 2° amended of the French Environment Code).

In addition, a bonus is provided for reusable packaging that complies with the packaging standards that will be defined by the eco-organisations in application of the AGEC law n° 2020-105 of 20 February 2020 (Art. 29; Art. L. 541-10-3, para. 1 amended of the French Environment Code).

Repairability of products (Art. 30 and 32 of the law)

Availability of spare parts. Article 30 imposes from 1 January 2022 on manufacturers and importers of household appliances equipment, small computer and telecommunications equipment, screens and monitors the obligation to ensure the availability of spare parts during the marketing period of the product as well as for a minimum additional period of five years from the time the last unit of this model is placed on the market. The terms of this obligation must be specified by decree, particularly with regard to the list of products and parts concerned, the date of availability of parts and the duration of the additional period (Art. L. 111-4 amended of the French Consumer Code).

From 1 January 2023, any failure to comply with this obligation to make spare parts available will be punishable by an administrative fine of EUR 15,000 for a natural person and EUR 75,000 for a legal person (Art. L. 131-3 of the French Consumer Code).

On this date, the obligation to make spare parts available will also apply, under the same terms and subject to the same penalties, to motorised DIY and gardening tools, sports and leisure articles, including bicycles and electrically assisted bicycles, and motorised personal transport devices (Art. L. 111-4-1 of the French Consumer Code).

At the same time, professionals marketing maintenance and repair services for these same products must allow consumers to opt for the use, for certain categories of spare parts, of parts from the circular economy instead of new parts. The terms of implementation of this obligation will be specified by decree (Art. L. 224-112 and L. 224-13 of the new French Consumer Code). Failure to comply with this obligation will be punishable by an administrative fine of EUR 3,000 for a natural person and EUR 15,000 for a legal person (Art. L. 242-49 and Art. L. 242-50. new French Consumer Code).

In the same vein, Article 32 aims to encourage the reuse of spare parts for end-of-life vehicles, by providing for producers or their eco-organisation to take back these vehicles free of charge from private individuals at the place where they are held, with this take-back being accompanied by a return premium as of 1 January 2024 (Art. L. 541-10-26 II new C. env.).

Market for car parts. Finally, we should emphasise the partial opening up to competition from 1 January 2023 of the sale of car spare parts made possible by a change in the rules on intellectual property (Art. 32 of the law):

  • the possibility for all equipment manufacturers to market glazing parts;
  • the possibility for the equipment manufacturers having produced the original part to market, alongside the manufacturers, the other visible spare parts (mirrors, optical and bodywork parts);
  • the possibility for all equipment manufacturers to produce and market these parts ten years after the registration of the design of the part (as opposed to 25 years today).

This liberalisation aims to bring the French market into line with the practices of other European countries and responds favourably to a recommendation of the French Competition Authority (opinion 12-A-21 of 8 October 2012 and press release of 25 August 2021).

Key Contacts

Show more Show less
Nathalie Pétrignet
Nathalie Petrignet
Partner
Paris
Denis Redon
Denis Redon
Partner
Paris
Elisabeth Flaicher-Maneval
Elisabeth Flaicher-Maneval
Counsel
Paris
Agathe Le Quellec