As part of a continued focus on sustainability, the European Commission, Council, and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) in early December 2023. The new regulation will build on the …
In late August, UK Members of Parliament criticised the UK government for failing to lead in regulating artificial intelligence (AI). The criticism came ahead of an AI summit the UK government is hosting in November, and followed the release of a gov…
European product recalls increased 7.8% in the second quarter of 2023, marking a fourth consecutive quarter of aggregate growth across the automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer product sectors. According to Sedgwi…
In early August, the government of the United Kingdom released 13 proposals to change product safety. While stakeholders have been expecting these proposals for a while now, a few of the changes came as a surprise to regulatory experts because they c…
Last month, the European Academy of Paediatrics and 22 other medical associations wrote a letter to the EU Health Commissioner, urging the correction of the new EU Medical Devices Regulation (MDR). They warned that the regulation has led to a shortag…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, but it has largely been unregulated to this point. The European Union is looking to change that with its proposed EU AI Act. The European Parliament took a major step forward in AI regulation at the beginni…
In preparation for a ban on certain single-use plastic products that goes into effect on 1 October 2023, the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) has released guidance to assist businesses with the transition. Originally ann…
The European Union will officially adopt legislation to end sales of new petrol- or diesel-powered vehicles beginning in 2035 after EU Member States gave final approval to the law in late March. The final vote on the legislation was originally schedu…
According to our latest European product recall index report, the overall number of recall events in Europe fell 8.8% in the third quarter, compared to Q2. The pharmaceutical sector experienced the greatest decline, registering 25.0% fewer events. Th…
For years, the European Commission has been working on a plan to create a circular economy for a more sustainable future. The resulting Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), adopted in March 2020, includes several strategic initiatives that would tran…
The global semiconductor shortage has plagued many industries and frustrated consumers for the best part of two years. To avert future shortages, the European Union (EU) has now joined the ranks of several countries in introducing legislation to shor…
The European Union Clinical Trial Regulation (CTR) recently came into force and introduced a unified regulatory regime that applies to all EU member states. While the goal of the CTR is to reestablish the EU’s competitiveness in the field of scientif…
The European Union’s “New Deal”, the Enforcement and Modernisation Directive, boosts consumer rights protection and updates e-commerce and digital content regulations. The directive also broadens the definition of product safety to include misleading…