The EU is really walking the talk if you look at the quality and quantity of regulations that have been issued only in December. The acts mentioned here have an impact on GS1 core business and they apply independently of where businesses are situated, as far as products are marketed in Europe.

Draft regulation on Digital Services Act and digital Markets Act

After long discussions, the EU just published the DSA package which is a complex set of new requirements applicable to online intermediaries and platforms e.g. online marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms, app stores as well as online travel and accommodation platforms. The DMA includes rules on gatekeeper online platforms defined as “digital platforms with a systemic role in the internal market that function as bottlenecks between businesses and consumers for important digital services”.

In a nutshell, the new measures include:

  • traceability requirements of business users and economic operators, to help identify sellers of illegal goods
  • more transparency  on the algorithms used 
  • obligations for very large platforms to prevent the misuse of their systems by taking risk-based actions
  • access for researchers to key data of the largest platforms, in order to understand how online risks evolve
  • the development of an oversight structure to address the complexity of the online space: EU countries will have the primary role, supported by a new European Board for Digital Services and for very large platforms, enhanced supervision by the Commission directly.

 

Draft regulation on data governance

The EU data governance regulation is meant to strengthen data-sharing mechanisms across the EU and to foster the availability of data for different purposes including for the “public interest”. The draft includes new requirements on data governance and set the scene for the EU data spaces which will be nine in total, ranging from industry to energy, and from health to the European Green Deal. At first reading, it looks like GS1 as an organisation will be subject to some of the rules included in the draft. 

For more information please click here

 

Draft regulation on batteries and waste batteries

As anticipated, the first sector to be subject to the EU product passport concept is the batteries one. The brand-new draft covers all batteries, namely portable for common usage, industrial and electrical vehicle ones. In case you won’t have the time to read it all, please be aware at least of the following:  “Each battery shall have a battery passport, unique for each individual battery and identified through a unique identifier that the economic operator placing the battery on the market shall attribute to it and which shall be printed or engraved on it. The battery passport shall be accessible online, through interoperable electronic systems”. Please get in touch and let us know if your MO has ever worked in this area.

For more information please click here

 

EU Single Window for Customs

In the EU we are used to do business without internal borders while that is still a dream for other regions in the world. But we also know that the EU external border needs to become more efficient. The topic has become hot again also due to Brexit. These are some of the reasons behind the new EU plan. The Single Window Environment for Customs will become a digital infrastructure for quicker and more efficient data sharing among all authorities involved in goods clearance. Businesses will be allowed to complete border formalities only once and in one single National portal and Customs will then be able to automatically verify compliance against EU requirements and that the necessary customs formalities have been completed. 

Read more here

 

Do you want to know more? Please contact Francesca Poggialli at francesca.poggiali@gs1.org