How EU Electronics Regulations Drive Product Design Worldwide and How EIATRACK Helps You Cope

1
How EU Electronics RegulationsDrive Product
Design Worldwide(and How EIATRACK Helps You Cope)

• Prof. Lucas BergkampBangkok, 2 September 2008

2
Roadmap

• EU Electronics Laws
• Consequences for South East Asian Companies
• Corporate Management
• How EIATRACK Helps
• European electronics law continues to expand and
  drive product design worldwide!

3
EU Electronics Regulations

• EU electronics regulations present real market
  access risks
• Compliance is key
• Companies need tools to ensure compliance
• Premier Tool is TIAs EIATRACK
• Electronics producers prefer to manufacture to
  one worldwide standard
• Most stringent standards drive product design
  (and that is often EU)

4

• Part I
• EU ELECTRONICS LAWS

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EU Electronics Laws

• WEEE (waste electronics)
• RoHS (chemical restrictions)
• EuP (energy-using products)
• Batteries
• REACH (chemical law)
• Packaging and packaging waste
• Ecolabeling

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EU Electronics Laws

• Imposes range of requirements
• Design requirements
• Chemical prohibitions and restrictions
• Take back and recycling requirements
• Registration requirements
• Reporting requirements
• Labelling requirements, etc.

7
EU Electronics Laws

• Legislation is complex
• Is your product subject to the law?
• Is your product subject to a specific
  requirement?
• Can you claim an exemption? If so, under what
  conditions?
• If you not sure about whether a requirement
  applies, how can you resolve the uncertainty?,
  etc.
• Guidelines (FAQs, etc.) resolve some issues, but
  raise other issues

8
EU Electronics Laws

• EU electronics continues to evolve and evolves
  rapidly
• WEEE Directive is being reviewed and amendments
  have been proposed
• RoHS Directive is being reviewed and amendments
  have been proposed
• EuP Directive is being implemented through series
  of product group-specific eco-design requirements
• Battery legislation requires further
  implementation
• REACH is being implemented, etc.

9

• PART 2.
• Issues and Consequences for South East Asian EE
  Industries

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Comparitive Disadvantages

• Law applies to domestically produced EEE and
  imported EEE
• No overt discrimination
• But potential for hidden discrimination
• EU electronics law has disproportionate impact on
  non-EU producers, including South East Asian EE
  industries
• Access to information is more difficult
• Limited access to regulatory processes
• Specific issues are not taken into account

11
Consequences

• Interpretation and application of legislation
  varies between Member States
• Complicates picture
• Requires local knowledge
• Impedes compliance
• Enforcement of law is unclear and uneven
• What is, in fact, tolerated by authorities?
• If law is always followed to the letter,
  compliance may be overly expensive

12
Consequences

• Customers and distributors in Europe expect
  compliance
• How can producers demonstrate compliance
  vis-à-vis customers?
• Are producers willing to guarantee compliance?
• Authorities also expect compliance
• How can producers demonstrate compliance
  vis-à-vis authorities?
• What sanctions can be imposed for non-compliance?
• Producers depend on supply chain to achieve
  compliance
• What should they expect and require from their
  suppliers?

13

• PART 3.
• Corporate Management

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Corporate EHS Management

• Product Redesign Presents Huge Supply Chain
  Management Issues
• It takes time to redesign products
• It takes time to test and certify products
• It takes time to substitute materials and/or
  suppliers
• All departments (RD, purchasing, marketing,
  etc.) need sufficient advance notice

15
Product Compliance

• Product compliance is necessary for continued
  market access
• Ensuring compliance is not a one-time thing, but
  a continuous process
• Thorough understanding of law is required to take
  full advantage of built-in flexibility, relaxed
  interpretations, exemptions, et cetera

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Corporate Management

• Key Questions for Corporate Management Include
• How should companies respond to these challenges?
• How can they ensure continued market access and
  compliance with the law?
• How can they influence implementation of the law?
• What management structures should they consider
  establishing?

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Corporate EHS Management

• Five elements
• Monitoring evolving EU regulation
• Member State implementation of WEEE/RoHS
• REACH, EUP Directive, Battery Directive, etc.
• Analyzing business impact
• How is company affected?
• How are competitors affected?

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Corporate EHS Management

• If necessary, try to influence process
• Substantive arguments
• Strategy and procedure
• Ensure compliance
• In company
• Throughout supply chain
• Handle enforcement issues and reduce liability
  risks

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• PART 4.
• How EIATRACK Helps

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An Outstanding Asset
An Outstanding Asset

• The worlds most comprehensive authoritative
  website covering all significant product-related
  environmental regulations pertaining to
  electronics and consumer products.
• Analysis provided by Global Legal Content Experts
  
• More than 120 jurisdictions tracked
• 6,000 laws
• Featuring Regulatory Alerts, Webinars, Quarterly
  Newsletter, Interactive QA, Special Reports

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The Tool for You

• Accurate - Provided by the worlds leading
  experts in product compliance Hunton Williams,
  Beveridge Diamond, Holland Knight
• Timely - Regulatory Alerts are posted and emailed
  as they are released and the Questions and
  Answers give you quick, reliably answers.
• Accessible Organized, easily searchable online
  information available to all your licensed users.
  
• Affordable Saves you time and money and you get
  the best available information for less than the
  price of one researcher

22
Scope of Coverage

• Product take-back
• Design for environment
• Batteries
• Restricted substances
• Energy efficiency
• Hazardous waste
• Transboundary waste shipments

23
Subscribing Companies

• These are just a few of the companies relying on
  EIATRACK
• ADC Telecommunications Ericsson, Inc. Oki Data
• Adtran GE Panasonic
• Alcatel-Lucent Gillette Philips
• Avaya IBM Qualcomm
• Boeing Intel Research In Motion
• Bose JVC Ricoh
• Carestream Healthcare Motorola Seagate
• Cisco Systems Nortel Sony
• Corning

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Members Participate

• Regional Advisory Councils
• North America, South America, Asia
• Europe
• Subscribers help focus and set the content agenda

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Like a 24/7 Staff Member
Literally EIATRACK has been like a staff member
who works around the clock gathering regulatory
information world-wide and presenting it
precisely in an email at a time when I cannot
afford to do it myself but need it that instant.
Leland Civils, Product Steward, AkzoNobel
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Let EIATRACK Do Your Job

• Corporate Quality Manager, Senior Scientist, EHS
  Engineer, Materials Specialist, Senior Engineer,
  Manufacturing Technologies Manager, Product
  Compliance Manager, Sr. Certification Engineer,
  Sr. Consultant Corporate Sustainability, RD
  Engineer, Product Designer, Product Steward,
  Government Relations Manager

27
Satisfaction Survey
Rate the usefulness of features. Regulatory
Alerts, Reports Substances, Legal Documents and
QA are winners
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Markets Covered
Question Where would you like more coverage?
China, Asia are top of mind
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Keep TrackEfficiently
Question Where would you like more coverage?
China, Asia are top of mind
The emails I get from EIATRACK are excellent for
keeping me up to dateI can instantly access the
information that is useful to me without having
to read through things that aren't. I would
thoroughly recommend the website.
Matthew Huntley, Material and Environmental
Engineer, Vertu, a subsidiary of Nokia
30
Trial Subscription

• Please ask about your trial subscription today!!
• Email efarmer_at_tiaonline.org

31

• PART 5.
• Conclusions

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Conclusions

• Managing EU electronics law requirements requires
  carefully designed program
• Compliance program, involving supply chain
  management, audits, certification, testing,
  non-compliance response program, etc.
• EIATRACKs monitoring to identify evolving
  requirements early on
• Legislative and regulatory advocacy program to
  protect companys interest
• Proactive approach vis-à-vis regulators may help
• Participation in studies should be considered
• At EU level and national level
• Presents increased challenges for South East
  Asian EE producers

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Conclusions

• WEEE and RoHS no longer European issues
• Similar requirements are being adopted elsewhere
  in the world (Asia, Americas)
• Are EuP, REACH and Batteries laws to follow suit?
  Is globalization of EU electronics regulation in
  the offing?
• European experience can help in shaping programs
  in other countries
• Key issue are access to world markets and appeal
  to consumers
• It goes beyond compliance
• Competition in eco-design will become more and
  more important for commercial success!
• EIATRACK Helps You To Be Successful in World
  Markets!

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• Thank you for your attention.
• Prof. Lucas Bergkamp
• Hunton Williams
• Atrium Parc
• Rue des Colonies 11
• 1050-Brussels, Belgium
• lbergkamp_at_hunton.com