Online symposium on illegal imports via online platforms at the expense of the environment and consumers
Massive amounts of products are sold to consumers from outside the EU via online platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress or Wish. Such imported goods often do not comply with existing environmental and consumer protection legislation. These non-compliant products including electronic goods, children's toys, car parts or cosmetics pose a threat to the environment, risk health and safety of consumers and amplify unfair competition with retailers offering compliant goods. So far, it is regularly not possible to take effective legal action against infringements originating from outside of the EU.
Current legislative attempts fail to provide a solution to illegal imports via online platforms. The Digital Services Act (DSA) missed the opportunity to establish liability or sufficient due diligence obligations for online platforms. This is crucial as online platforms enable and profit enormously from the import of large quantities of products from outside the EU. Therefore, it is necessary to tackle this issue in further EU legislation, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) or the amendment of the Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or at national level.
This online symposium addresses the urgent matter of illegal imports via online platforms. Various experts will present the scale and its impact on consumers, the environment and industry, and explain current shortcomings in EU legislation. Insights on best practices and potential regulatory solutions will provide a solid foundation for the subsequent political panel discussion. Key questions and measures to effectively stop the import of illegal products via online platforms will be discussed with policy makers, industry and NGO representatives: How should EU legislation such as ESPR, WFD or WEEE-Directive be developed to ensure that buying products via online platforms is safe and environmentally sound? What obligations shall be imposed on online platforms to prevent illegal imports? Which approaches have been implemented at national level to address that pressing issue and how can they potentially be adapted in EU? What options do member states have to address illegal imports nationally?
We are looking forward to your registration for the online symposium. Please register by 26th of March, 2023 using the online form below. Please feel free to forward this event to interested stakeholders.
To organize this event Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V. processes the following data: Name*, first name*, organization, e-mail address* (*mandatory fields in the registration form) according to Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR.
In order to enable a professional exchange between the participants beyond the conference, the participant data, limited to your name and your organization, will be made available to all participants in the form of a list of participants. The legal basis for this is also Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR. The possibility of a more extensive exchange of expertise is in the interest of all participants. If you do not want this or would like to limit the type of data in the list of participants, please let us know separately. After the event, you will also receive the presentations as a PDF.
For our online events, we use the Zoom video conferencing service in the Pro version 5.0 with server locations exclusively in the EU or countries with an appropriate level of data protection. This version has end-to-end encryption. More information on the use of Zoom can be found here. Data processing in the context of the use of Zoom is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR.
The event will not be recorded. You will receive the link to the event and further information on participation by mail after successful registration. The participation is free of charge.
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Web conference: „Blind spot online sales: How to stop illegal imports via online platforms?“
Date: Monday, 27th of March 2023
Time: 14:00 to 17:00
Online via Zoom
Contact
© Miruchna Viktor Schödwell
Senior Expert Circular Economy
E-Mail: Mail schreiben
