COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2023/1670 of 16 June 2023 laying down ecodesign requirements for smartphones, mobile phones other than smartphones, cordless phones and slate tablets pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and amending Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/826 (Text with EEA relevance)

(1)

Pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC, the Commission should set ecodesign requirements for energy-related products which account for significant volumes of sales and trade in the Union and which have a significant environmental impact and presenting significant potential for improvement through design in terms of their environmental impact, without entailing excessive costs.

(2)

The Commission has carried out a preparatory study to analyse the technical, environmental and economic aspects of mobile phones, cordless phones and slate tablets. The study has been carried out with stakeholders and interested parties from the Union and third countries, and the results have been made publicly available.

(3)

The steep increase in the demand for smartphones and tablets, combined with their increased functionality, has resulted in increased demand for energy and materials needed to manufacture these devices on the EU market, accompanied by an increase in their associated environmental impacts. In addition, devices are often replaced prematurely by users and are, at the end of their useful life, not sufficiently reused or recycled, leading to a waste of resources. Against this background, the preparatory study identified environmental aspects to be addressed in this Regulation. Those aspects mainly concern resource efficiency and include the avoidance of premature obsolescence, repairability, reliability of the products and their key components such as batteries and display, reusability and recyclability.

(4)

Ecodesign requirements should harmonise resource efficiency requirements for mobile phones, cordless phones and slate tablets throughout the Union for the internal market to operate better and in order to improve the environmental performance of those products. In light of this aim and the environmental aspects to be addressed, the preparatory study showed that ecodesign requirements should relate to design for reliability, including resistance to accidental drops, scratch resistance, protection from dust and water, and battery longevity, to the ability to be disassembled and repaired, to the availability of operating system version upgrades, to data deletion and the transfer of functionalities after use, to the provision of appropriate information for users, repairers and recyclers as well as to battery endurance.

(5)

In order to ensure that devices are able to be effectively repaired, a range of spare parts should be available to professional repairers or end users. Those spare parts should, regardless of whether they are new or used, have the effect of upgrading or restoring the functionality of the device in which they are installed.

(6)

In order to ensure that devices are able to be effectively repaired, the price of spare parts should be reasonable and should not discourage repair. To create transparency and incentivise the setting of reasonable prices, the indicative pre-tax price for spare parts provided pursuant to this Regulation should be accessible on a free access website.

(7)

It is currently not possible, or extremely difficult, for the owners of mobile phones, including smartphones, and tablets to change the operating system of their device, which is chosen and maintained by the manufacturer through regular updates. Such updates generally lead to the establishment of a range of major and minor versions. Updates may be used to ensure the continued security of a device, to correct errors in the operating system or to offer new functionalities to users. They may be offered voluntarily or might be required to be offered by Union law. In order to improve the reliability of devices, therefore, it needs to be ensured that users keep receiving such updates for a minimum period of time and at no cost, including for a period after the manufacturer stops selling the relevant product model. Such updates should be offered either as updates to the latest available operating system version that has to be installable on the device, or as updates to the operating system version that was installed on the product model at the moment of the end of placement on the market, or subsequent versions.

(8)

The requirement concerning a functionality for secure erasure of the encryption key could be implemented by means of technical solutions such as, but not limited to, a functionality implemented in firmware, typically in the bootloader, in software included in a self-contained bootable environment, or in software installable in the supported operating systems provided with the product.

(9)

The total primary energy consumption of the installed base in the EU27 of mobile phones, cordless phones and slate tablets in 2020 over their lifecycle was 39,5 TWh (of which 28,5 TWh for smartphones, 1,6 TWh for mobile phones other than smartphones, 1,8 TWh for cordless phones and 7,6 TWh for slate tablets), which includes a major share of primary energy consumption in production outside the EU27. Of these 39,5 TWh, the share attributed to electricity consumption - for both production and use - is 26,6 TWh (19,2 TWh, 0,9 TWh, 1,1 TWh and 5,4 TWh, respectively, for smartphones, mobile phones other than smartphones, cordless phones and slate tablets). Without regulatory measures, those values are projected to decrease slightly to 39,3 TWh (29,3 TWh, 1,5 TWh, 1,4TWh and 7,3TWh, respectively, for smartphones, mobile phones other than smartphones, cordless phones and slate tablets) of primary energy in 2030. The combined effect of this Regulation and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1669 (2) is expected to limit this 2030 value to 25,4 TWh (18,2 TWh, 1,0 TWh, 1,1TWh and 5,2 TWh, respectively, for smartphones, mobile phones other than smartphones, cordless phones and slate tablets), saving around 33 % on the primary energy consumption of smartphones, mobile phones other than smartphones, cordless phones and slate tablets compared to what would happen if no measures were taken.

(10)

The relevant product parameters should be measured using reliable, accurate and reproducible methods. Those methods should take into account recognised state-of-the-art measurement methods including, where available, harmonised standards adopted by the European standardisation bodies, as listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3).

(11)

In accordance with Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC, this Regulation should specify the applicable conformity assessment procedures.

(12)

To facilitate compliance checks, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives should provide information in the technical documentation referred to in Annexes IV and V to Directive 2009/125/EC in so far as that information relates to the requirements laid down in this Regulation.

(13)

For market surveillance purposes, manufacturers, importers or authorised representatives should be allowed to refer to the product database if the technical documentation as per Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1669 contains the same information.

(14)

In order to protect consumers and to avoid that the rules laid down in this Regulation are circumvented, products that automatically alter their performance in test conditions to improve the declared parameters should be prohibited.

(15)

In addition to the legally binding requirements laid down in this Regulation, indicative benchmarks for best available technologies should be identified to make information on the environmental performance of products subject to this Regulation over their life cycle widely available and easily accessible, in accordance with Directive 2009/125/EC, Annex I, part 3, point (2).

(16)

A review of this Regulation should assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of its provisions in achieving its goals. The timing of the review should take into account, among other factors, whether all provisions have been implemented and show an effect on the market.

(17)

Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/826 (4) should be amended to exclude cordless phones from its scope in order to prevent any overlap with the same products in the scope of this Regulation.

(18)

The entry into application of ecodesign requirements should be 21 months after the entry into force of this Regulation, in order to give manufacturers sufficient time to redesign their products subject to this Regulation.

(19)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established by Article 19(1) of Directive 2009/125/EC,

(a)

the need to revise the scope of this Regulation to reflect market evolution;

(b)

the appropriateness of including smart wearables in the scope of this Regulation and of laying down generic and specific requirements for these;

(c)

the appropriateness of setting specific ecodesign requirements on the resistance of slate tablets to accidental drops;

(d)

the appropriateness of increasing the stringency of the requirement on battery endurance in cycles;

(e)

the appropriateness of defining a standardised battery that could be used interchangeably across a range of mobile phones and slate tablets;

(f)

the need to set out requirements to enable or improve repair and upgradeability with used or third-party spare parts;

(g)

the need to revise or extend the list of spare parts, of spare parts availability per target group including professional repairers and end-users, and of repair information for which requirements are set out;

(h)

the inclusion of further chemical elements in the information requirements in Annex II;

(i)

the need to include reliability requirements related to foldable devices;

(j)

the appropriateness to impose requirements on the recycled content of materials;

(k)

the appropriateness of imposing further information requirements on spare part prices;

(l)

the option for manufacturers to make data for 3D printing of plastic components (e.g. battery compartment cover, buttons etc.) publicly available on a free-access website, either in addition to their obligation to make these spare parts available to professional repairers or end-users or as a means to fulfil this obligation;

(m)

the appropriateness to prohibit serialisation of parts;

(n)

the appropriateness of requirements regarding functionality updates to the operating system;

(o)

the appropriateness of the exemptions for foldable devices;

(p)

the appropriateness of setting ecodesign requirements for mobile phones with a flexible main display which the user can unroll and roll up partly or fully;

(q)

the appropriateness of extension of the periods for availability of updates to the operating system;

(r)

the appropriateness of extension of the period for availability of spare parts.