The draft Voluntary Agreement has been published and will now be open for discussion and revision ahead of a decision by the European Union to accept the VA in lieu of Legislation.
For the first time, this VA includes cartridges and containers (consumables) where the 11 OEM members of EuroVAprint (Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lexmark, OKI, Sharp, Toshiba and Xerox) and leading Remanufacturers (3T Supplies AG/Peach, ARMOR SAS, Clover Imaging Group and KMP AG) have worked intensively on key issues that have prevented agreement on the VA cartridges provisions of the last two years.
In addition to consumables, the VA covers energy efficiency and commitments for Resource Efficiency and Information to align the VA with the Circular Economy objectives set by the European Commission and the latest approved Ecodesign Implementing Measures.
To maintain the alignment with the regulatory framework on design for recycling and recovery the draft VA seeks to maintain alignment with wording of both the WEEE Directive and recent Ecodesign Implementing Measures.
Enabling repair is a key interest to the imaging sector to assure long life of products in order to sustain a continuity of its supplies business. The EuroVAprint members will now, via the VA set a minimum period for the provision of spare parts of 5 years, up from 3 years.
You can read the VA here.
Editor’s Opinion: It is good news that consumables are on the table, but there are a lot of exclusions like subscription and contractual (MPS) sales. Most of all there are no targets for reuse of consumables. The VA is definitely an improvement on the earlier version, but it only applies between the signatories and does not address the whole market. Legislation could incorporate all the elements in the VA but add consumer protection and long term reuse targets and would apply to the whole office imaging sector.
