ECOS | Environmental Coalition on Standards

17 March 2022

ECJ backs ban on halogenated flame retardants – industry loses desperate attempt at challenging EU rules

On 16 March, the European Court of Justice ruled that an EU ban on halogenated flame retardants is in conformity with the law. The phase-out was approved in 2019 under the Ecodesign Directive.

In 2019, the European Commission banned the use of halogenated flame retardants in the enclosures and stands of electronic displays under an ecodesign regulation covering electronic displays, including televisions, monitors and digital signage displays. [1] The Commission listened to calls for a ban from NGOs and a number of Member States.
 
The ban entered into force on 1 March 2021.
  
The Bromine Science and Environnemental Forum (BSEF), an industry lobby, challenged the decision of the Commission before the ECJ.
 
In a ruling published yesterday [1], the ECJ dismissed the industry claims. The court deemed that halogenated flame retardants were banned fairly because of the ‘disadvantages’ they cause ‘in terms of the recycling capacity of the plastics into which they are incorporated’.

Flame retardants are supposed to help avoid the accidental ignition of small fires as a result of, for example, overheating of an electronic display. However, it is impossible to get rid of these chemicals after they have entered the recycling chain.
 
Ioana Popescu, Senior Programme Manager at ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards
 
 ‘Halogenated flame retardants are unnecessary. They seek to mitigate a risk that is in fact extremely low… and it is impossible to get rid of them when recycling. Their ban was an important win for the environment and we welcome the ECJ’s ruling.

This is an important precedent for the upcoming Sustainable Products initiative, which must be used to phase out chemicals that pose problems to circularity for all products and materials available on the EU market’.  

 
Notes to editors:

[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019R2021
 
[2] ECJ ruling – Case T‑113/20 
https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=6647D49616F3A2E699A1D8CB046EDBB4?text=&docid=256004&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=474066
 
Further background on halogenated flame retardants available here: https://ecostandard.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/FRFF-Alliance-policy-paper-2019-Final.pdf

 

Contact point: 

Ivo Cabral, press manager at ECOS  ivo.cabral@ecostandard.org 
 

ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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