Status of the new EU legislation What information is relevant for technical writers?

From Susanna Akdut

A key aim of these policy initiatives is to empower consumers to make informed choices for more sustainable products and services. Users should be able to obtain information about the environmental and social impact of products and thus become the driving force for change towards sustainable practices. And technical communication is particularly important for this.

In the future, the availability of such information will increasingly be sought on digital platforms, making it easier for consumers to search for the right information and make informed purchasing decisions - which is why these developments are of key relevance for technical communication.

It is therefore important for technical communication to understand the relevant legislation, as it has a direct influence on the way in which products are developed, marketed and used.

Technical communication will increasingly take on the role of providing information on the environmental sustainability of products. This concerns both consumers and players in the supply chain, such as economic operators. Digital product passports play an important role here. In future, these passports will contain detailed information on the environmental impact of products and enable transparent traceability of resources and recycling processes.

The European Green Deal Regulations and standards play a crucial role in the regulatory framework, especially in the context of the European Union (EU) Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan. The regulations and standards under the Green Deal and the Circular Economy provide a clear framework for companies to ensure that their products not only meet current environmental requirements, but also meet growing consumer expectations for sustainability and transparency.

The "Green Deal" is a comprehensive package of measures aimed at making the EU climate-neutral by 2050. It covers various areas such as agriculture, energy and climate, and has far-reaching implications for all sectors of the economy. The Circular Economy Action Plan also plays a central role in this context. The aim of this plan is to promote the transition from a linear to a circular economy in which resources are used more efficiently and waste is minimized.

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Bio

Susanna Akdut is a technical writer and certification expert in the field of product conformity. She is responsible for technical communication and product certification at the headquarters of Roxell BV in Belgium, a global manufacturer of agricultural equipment. She has a university degree in economics, is a guest lecturer in technical communication at the KU Leuven and a delegate of tekom Belgium. She is involved in the tekom working group “Terminology of Technical Communication” (AG TTK) and in the advisory board for legislation and standards. As a delegate in international standardization committees, she contributes to the development of standards in technical communication.

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Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products

With the Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products (ESPR) (EU) 2024/1781, the European Union has set the legal framework for defining ecodesign requirements that are intended to help improve key product aspects and which is a decisive step towards promoting the sustainable production and use of products. The specific product groups to which the requirements relate will be specified by delegated acts.

The ecodesign requirements (Article 5) are intended to ensure that products are designed to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable throughout their life cycle. The most important requirements include:

• Durability and reliability
• Reusability and reparability
• Upgradeability and possibility of maintenance and refurbishment
• Presence of substances of concern
• Energy,water and resource efficiency
• Conservation of resources and recyclability
• Environmental impact including footprint
• Minimizing the amount of waste

The scope of the Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products (ESPR) includes:

• All physical products, including their components and intermediate products.
• Exceptions: Food, animal feed, living beings, vehicles and medicines.

Long-term goal: The regulation is to be extended to all physical products in the medium term.

The regulation is aimed at a large number of stakeholders as customers and economic operators whereby new groups as for example professional repairers and independent operators are defined. To the group of independent operators belong refurbishers, repairers, as well as publishers of technical documentation.

A key component of the ESPR is the provision of comprehensive product information to ensure both compliance with legal requirements and the sustainability and recyclability of products. This includes:

• Digital Product Passport (DPP): The aim is to provide product-specific information transparently.
• Labels: Products should be labeled accordingly to enable customers and market surveillance authorities to better assess their sustainability.

According to Article 7, information about the product on its performances and about substances of concern are required. Information about all activities of the whole product life cycle and after-life cycle  must be provided in addition to the relevant instructions for the safe use of the product. The information must be clear and understandable, tailored to the different target audiences.

Digital product passport

The Digital product passport (DPP) is a key element of the new EU strategy to promote sustainable products. Products are only complete with environmental sustainability information.  It is intended to provide digital access to comprehensive product-specific information relating to sustainability, the circular economy and compliance with legislation. It will provide information on products, components and materials. A planned EU DPP registry  should be accessible to all economic operators, all supply chain actors and consumers as well as market surveillance authorities and customs authorities. A web portal is planned to be set up for consumers and stakeholders to facilitate access to this information.

• The requirements of the digital product passport are defined in the ESPR. Other product legislation amongst others, as the Construct Products Regulation or the Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1452 contain applications of the digital product passport

Information requirements of the DPP

• The DPP contains relevant product-specific information on sustainability, circularity and legal compliance.  The DPP requirements are described I Chapter III and Annex III of the ESPR. The DPP must contain detailed product information about sustainability aspects as given in Annex I of the ESPR. It also includes technical documentation, declaration of conformity, certificates, user manuals, instructions, warnings, safety information and tracking information. The given information must also comply with the applicable EU product legislative act.

New Construction Products Regulation

The new Construction Products Regulation (CPR) (EU) 2024/3110 will replace the existing CPR 305/2011 in the long term. It entered into force on 7 January 2025 and will apply as of 8 January 2026. Interestingly is that elements of the ESPR are incorporated in the Construction Products Regulation 2024/3110. Especially the Digital product passport will be essential.

Right to Repair Directive (EU) 2024/1799

The Right to Repair Directive, which came into force in 2024 aims to empower consumers to make sustainable choices by providing comprehensive repair information and finding a convenient repairer. With this directive the B2C market is addressed. The scope of this directive, listed in Annex III covers a limited range of products, including household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, refrigerators, electronic displays and cell phones.

A central element of the Directive is the European Repair Form, which is regulated in Article 4. This form provides information on the type of repair, the costs and the repair time. The aim is to enable consumers to make informed and sustainable decisions.

In addition, the European Repair Platform (Article 7) will be introduced, where consumers can find repairers, sellers of refurbished goods and buyers of defective goods. The aim of this platform is to facilitate access to repair services and makes it easy to find repairers, sellers of refurbished goods and buyers of defective goods.

The Directive also mentions vulnerable consumers and consumers with disabilities.

Green Transition Directive

The Empowering Consumer for the Green Transition Directive (EU) 2024/825 is another legislative act in the B2C-context. It aims to provide consumers with better information on the environmental and social characteristics of products and to protect them from unfair practices such as greenwashing.

The core aspects of this directive are

• Prohibition of greenwashing and misleading information about ecological and social product characteristics
• Consistency of environmental information across all information channels (websites, instructions, labels, catalogs)
• Obligation to document and verify environmental claims

For technical communication, these regulations mean that they must ensure that all information provided is clear, correct and consistent. Violations of the requirements can result in severe penalties for economic operators.

The directive highlights the importance of transparency and accurate information in the digital age and in industrial ecosystems.

A Europe fit for the digital age

As part of the "Europe fit for the digital age" action plan, several new pieces of legislation and supplementary regulations have been enacted, including a digital law on the sharing of information and data. These highly complex regulations are particularly important for technical communication, as their implementation will have a significant impact on how information is provided and exchanged in the future and, above all, requires the provision of comprehensive information and instructions for the user. The Artificial Intelligence Act and the Cyber Resilience Act are two for technical communication important examples.

Artificial Intelligence Act

The European Union (EU) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act 2024/1689 is a far-reaching and detailed regulation that aims to make the development and use of AI systems safe and transparent. The act defines various stakeholders who play a role in connection with AI systems:

• Provider: This is a person, company or organization that develops an AI system (Article 3(3)).
• Deployer: A person, company or organization that uses an AI system under its supervision (Article 3(4)).
• Economic operators: Persons or organizations involved in the development, sale or operation of AI systems.
• Affected persons: These refer to those who are affected in some way by the use of AI systems.

An important aspect of the AI Act also concerns safety components (Article 3), which are defined as components of a product or AI system that fulfill a safety function. This is important because the malfunction of these components can endanger the health and safety of persons or property.

The risk-based approach: classification of AI systems

The AI Act takes a risk-based approach to regulating AI systems. AI systems are divided into different risk classes, with the highest risk level being associated with strict requirements. An example of a high-risk AI system is AI-based medical software, which is subject to special requirements regarding user information and safety.

Another key issue is transparency: certain AI-generated content must be clearly labeled as such, and chatbots in particular must clearly inform users that they are interacting with an AI. This should protect users from possible misunderstandings and false assumptions.

A particularly important point of the act is the ban on social scoring by governments or companies. This practice is seen as a significant threat to people's fundamental rights and is therefore strictly prohibited in the EU. Mass surveillance by state or private actors also falls under these prohibited practices, unless there are specific exceptions such as in the area of counter-terrorism.

The act also places specific requirements on high-risk AI systems, which are also relevant for technical communication:

• Technical documentation (Article 11): Before commissioning a high-risk AI system, detailed technical documentation must be prepared and kept up to date.
• Record-keeping (Article 12): Automatic recording of events during the lifetime of the system must be technically possible.
• Instructions for use (Article 13): AI-systems shall be provided with instructions for use, which shall be made available in an understandable digital format or by other means. These instructions must contain clear, complete and relevant information, including the characteristics and limitations of the system and its safety aspects.

legislation as part of the New Legislative Framework and other EU harmonisation legislation.  

Cyber Resilience Act

In the scope of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) (EU 2024/2847 are products with digital elements. These products include a direct or indirect logical or physical data connection to a device or network:

• Hardware products and components: Examples are laptops, mobile phones and network equipment, in other words connectable devices
• Software products and components: Examples are operating systems, games or mobile apps which can be accessed by e-mail, stream, download or other ways of access.

In the scope fall also remote data processing solutions if performing a product function. Products must have an appropriate level of security. The information and instructions to the user shall give clear, understandable information about the product with digital elements, its secure use and security-relevant information. A “new” type of information is described in the CRA, namely the Software Bill of Material (SBoM) which is a formal record containing details of components included in the software of the product with digital elements.

Annex I of the CRA describes the essential cybersecurity requirements, which contain an appropriate level of security, security aspects which are based on the cybersecurity risk assessment and vulnerability handling requirements (e.g. information about fixed vulnerabilities and free of charge security updates.

Information obligations and technical documentation

Manufacturers, importers and distributors shall ensure that their products are provided with the necessary instructions, either in paper form or electronically. These instructions must be clear, understandable and legible, written in a language that can be easily understood by users and market surveillance authorities. Like in other product legislation, manufactures shall draw up the technical documentation including user information and instructions.

Machinery Regulation

The Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 which entered into force in 2023 and shall apply as of 14 January 2027 will replace the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC on that date. In other words, the Machinery Directive is still applicable. Together with the Machinery regulation,  the manufacturer has to take into account legislative acts linked with Green Deal legislation and legislation of the EU digital age, based on the product specifications and the target audiences. The provisions of the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 are applicable for the B2B and the BC2-market. In the perspective of the European Green Deal, the ESPR will also be applicable for machinery. In the scope of machinery are machinery products and related products and partly completed machinery. The ESPR-requirements will apply in a long-term any physical product, meaning also machinery.

In the perspective of the Digital age, connectable machines shall comply to the concerned EU legislative act. The AI Act, the CRA and other legislative acts are applicable when AI is used in machinery, in smart machines, Internet of Things or remote maintenance. Safety components must be evaluated due to their physical and digital components.

That means, based on the risk assessment , the information given to all stakeholders, the manufacturer shall evaluate the physical safety and the digital security aspects of the machine.

Future prospects

The Green Deal will have a lasting impact on product development and the market in the EU. With the aim of promoting the circular economy and supporting responsible consumption, it forms the basis for a comprehensive transformation of the entire product landscape. Manufacturers and other economic operators face the challenge of implementing far-reaching changes and taking measures to comply with the new requirements.

As the Green Deal and the legislation of the Digital age introduce extensive information obligations for products, this will have a significant impact on technical communication. It will become relevant for a wider range of products with more detailed required information for the existing and new target audiences.  As a result, technical communication will become much more important and an indispensable part of the product strategy.