By Olive Latham-Hill
The European Green Deal is a set of regulations and policy goals adopted by the European Union to move Europe toward becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050[1]. The Green Deal affects a wide range of industries. While some of the goals set in the Green Deal aim to achieve climate neutrality by targeting emissions, or increasing funding to climate research, some of them place regulations on businesses.
The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) was enacted along with other regulations as part of the 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan[2]. The ESPR aims to increase the sustainability of products placed on the market by setting different performance, construction, and design rules. The ESPR refers to these rules as “ecodesign requirements,” which are divided into performance and information requirementsi. The performance requirements include rules made to improve product durability, reusability, and reparabilityi. The information requirements mandate, at a minimum, that manufactures use a digital product passporti. The digital product passport must be carried physically on the product, its packaging, or on documentation accompanying the producti.
The ecodesign requirements also work toward the ESPR’s goal to reduce practices that are associated with premature obsolescence due to the increased waste and use of energy and materials used to create the productsii. Manufacturers engage in planned obsolescence practices to force consumers to throw away and buy new products[3]. This practice has become increasingly common and is detrimental not only to the environment but also to the development of a circular economy. The circular economy model promotes the production of high-quality products designed for repair and reuseii. The ESPR focuses on product design as a means of achieving a circular economy in the Unioni.
This focus on product design is likely to affect litigation involving property rights. On the one hand, the efficiency values embedded in property law may align with the EU’s sustainability goals[4]. On the other hand, planned obsolescence has been operating under the current intellectual property practice, suggesting that intellectual property law may resist these new sustainable product design requirements. In some ways, intellectual property law may significantly influence the success of the ESPRiv.
In acknowledgement of the interaction between product design and intellectual property, the European Commission implemented an Action Plan on Intellectual Property in 2020iv. This plan is intended to strengthen IP protections, encourage the sharing of IP, and improve enforcement of IP rightsiv. The Act has the potential to support the ESPR and advance its sustainability.
Despite this potential, there have been many doubts cast on whether IP law can help the EU reach a more circular economy. Simon Geiregat, an IP law professor at Ghent University, expressed concern that the push toward repaired and refurbished goods may infringe on the property rights of others, but nevertheless agrees that the goal of sustainability should be a universal goal[5]. He further states that the balance between individual property rights, and this overarching shared goal of creating a sustainable future is for the courts to decidev. Charlotte J S Vrendenbarg, an intellectual property rights professor at Leiden University takes a different approach. Vrendenbarg argues that the “potential of IP law in general to contribute to the green transition further depends on the willingness of right holders to make their sustainable intellectual property more inclusive, open and accessible.”[6] She acknowledges that this can be done through a variety of different modes.
Although the ESPR is a European regulation, it signifies a shift in how future markets will operate. The ESPR will likely have effects far beyond the EU. Christophe Girardier, writing for the American Bar Association, views the ESPR’s compliance requirements as an opportunity for American sustainable companies “to understand their impact and concretely reduce it through ecodesign, but also enable them to distinguish themselves and promote environmental leadership in a rigorous and transparent manner, which is becoming increasingly correlated with shareholder value.”[7] Girardier describes the ESPR as a roadmap that “any government, business, or institution can adopt its principles, regardless of local political context” to use in their own sustainable transitionsvii.
Overall, it remains unclear how the ESPR will shape European markets, and even less certain how it will affect global markets. As global markets increasingly prioritize sustainability, intellectual property regimes must evolve accordingly .
[1] Council Regulation No. 2024/1781, 2024 O.J. (L1781) (establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for sustainable products, amending Directive (EU) 2020/1828 and Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and repealing Directive 2009/125/EC [2024]).
[2] Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, European Commission (May, 22, 2024) https://commission.europa.eu/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/ecodesign-sustainable-products-regulation_en.
[3] Shmuel I. Becher & Anne-Lise Sibony, Confronting Product Obsolescence, 27 Colum. J. Eur. L. 97, 101 (2021).
[4] Commission A dopts Action Plan on Intellectual Property to Strengthen EU’s E conomic R esilience and Recovery, European Commission (November, 24, 2020) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2187.
[5] Simon Geiregat, Trading Repaired and Refurbished Goods: How Sustainable is EU Exhaustion of Trade Marks?, 73 GRUR International,287 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/grurint/ikad124.
[6] Charlotte J S Vrendenbarg, Durable Design: What Role for EU Design Law in the Green Transition?, 74 GRUR International 525 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/grurint/ikaf052.
[7] Christopher Girardier, How EU Sustainability Regulations Present Opportunities for U.S. Companies, American Bar Association Business Law Today (Jul. 2025), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2025-july/eu-sustainability-regulations-opportunities-us-companies/.