Key Takeaways from the ICPHSO International Symposium 2024

This blog was originally posted on 23rd October, 2024. Further regulatory developments may have occurred after publication. To keep up-to-date with the latest compliance news, sign up to our newsletter.

AUTHORED BY JOANNE O’DONNELL, HEAD OF GLOBAL REGULATORY COMPLIANCE TEAM, COMPLIANCE & RISKS

ICPHSO International Symposium 2024

The 10th edition of the ICPHSO International Symposium took place in Brussels on 16 and 17 October 2024 in conjunction with the European Commission’s International Product Safety Week. Compliance & Risks was represented at this event by myself as well as Amy Chen and Livia Kecerova, Regulatory Compliance Consultants with the Market Access team.

The theme of the symposium – Bridges for Global Product safety- was evident in the wide range of keynote speeches and panel discussions on ways to build, cross, expand, develop and secure bridges that exist between EU product safety regulations and other related regulatory areas such as sustainability, repairability, circularity and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Digital Product Passport

Discussions in this session focused on how the DPP, as mandated by the EU Batteries Regulation, will shape mandatory reporting and what data points brands and retailers need to gather.

Key takeaways included:

Be prepared – As the regulation contained various deadlines which will be phased in over the next number of years, the advice was not to wait until those deadlines are imminent – be proactive in preparing in advance
The DPP should be aligned with your sustainability and product safety aims
Engage supply chain early

The New EU Product Liability Regime

Discussions in this session were based on how imminent changes to the EU’s product liability framework might give rise to a heightened liability risk and how regulatory breaches may be leveraged as evidence of product defects, potentially even leading to a presumption of product defects. The key takeaway from this session was that the new regime will result in a shift in the burden of proof away from the consumer claimant towards a rebuttable presumption in some cases which will make it easier for consumers to bring claims.

EU Right to Repair Directive

This session gave a good overview of the EU Right to Repair Directive as well as the standards and testing protocols required to certify second-hand parts ensuring they meet stringent safety and performance criteria. Key takeaways were that challenges between repairability and safety remain specifically with regard to batteries and that it is important to ensure that designing products for repairability does not compromise the long term safety of products.

ESG and Sustainability

This session, in which I featured as a panelist, explored how businesses are keeping on top of the increasing number of EU and UK product regulations in the areas of climate disclosures, ESG and sustainability. The panel also included a representative from the UK Office of Product Safety Standards as well as a leading third party online marketplace retailer.

Key takeaways from this session included:

The number and nature of regulations applicable to ESG and Sustainability has changed significantly since the introduction of the EU Green Deal.
ESG and sustainability are firmly embedded across the entire product lifecycle as is evidenced by regulations such as the EU Batteries Regulation, the Right to Repair Directive and the EU Deforestation Regulation to name a few.
The lack of harmonization and alignment with regards to extended producer responsibility for Packaging remains a challenge for businesses who are struggling to deal with the complexity and costs associated with conflicting and complex EPR regimes across the EU member states.

Regulatory tracking and horizon scanning tools that are both AI enabled and driven by Subject Matter Experts are critical to help companies stay on top of existing and proposed regulations in this field.