A quick look at some topics relevant for the vending industry.

 Right to repair: Mixed news for vending

As previously reported, the EU Commission proposal for a Right to Repair Directive lists refrigerated vending machines as a product group, but the included definition of a ‘consumer’ would mean our sector could not comply with the requirements.

The EVA has been pushing both the Internal Market (IMCO) Committee in the European Parliament and Member States in the Council to make an amendment to the legislation to ensure legal consistency. The final Parliament position did not include our proposed amendment, but happily the Council position does.

The Council and the Parliament will jointly negotiate the final Right to Repair contents, starting from December, but most likely in the new year.

PPWR: European Parliament agrees position

The key vote in the European Parliament on the Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) has taken place.

A number of changes to the original proposal, relevant for us include:

  • Exemptions for operators such as if they place less than specific amount of packaging per year on the market, they are a microenterprise, or if they have a sales area of less than 200m2.
  • Takeaway is now explicitly linked to the HORECA sector
  • Operators can refuse refill for hygienic issues or if containers are unsuitable with no liability for food safety issues, and can designate third parties for collection of items.

EVA responds to PSD3 and PSR consultations

The consultations on the new proposed 3rd Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the Payment Services Regulation (PSR) closed with the EVA submitting the industry position.

The Electronic Payment Committee members over recent weeks agreed the lines to take, namely:

  • To request an amendment to the PSR to require the European Central Bank (ECB) to specifically consider low value transactions when they determine the new Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) rules;
  • To introduce a definition of extremely low value transactions in the text.

The ECON Committee in the European Parliament will now scrutinise the text, and as such the EVA lobbying moves to the Parliament as well as the Council.

EVA Coin Group contributes to the 1210 Platform meeting

The EVA Coin Group participated in the 5th meeting of ‘Platform 1210,’ held in Lisbon on October 10 and 11, 2023.

This yearly event serves as a platform for engaging with the EU Commission and National Central Banks to discuss various aspects of Euro coin authentication in coin processing machines and the associated technologies and fitness checking guidelines.

Erwin Wetzel, Director General, delivered a presentation highlighting the industry’s perspective on Euro coin authentication and presented the EVA Coin Group’s key asks for improving the implementation of EU regulation 1210/2010. The overall goal is to ensure a higher level of accuracy in detecting counterfeits while taking into account economic considerations.

As part of the event, EVA Coin Group members were also given the opportunity to simulate spot tests on coin processing machines.

As always, EVA Members can consult the latest edition of the EU Newsletter for more details on all the developments, and others.