Products sold online: a recent OECD report indicated that non-compliance is a growing concern.
Product safety, environmental regulations, tax compliance, internal market regulations … how can we ensure that EU rules are met? Despite the environmental and economic consequences, the question is: can we be sure that online platforms respect the European rules regarding the producer responsibility?
EucoLight workshop will highlight the extent of the problem in several sectors and debate with policy makers and key stakeholders on solutions to ensure a level playing field.
Watch the full video of the event
Information about speakers
Hervé Grimaud- ESR/Récylum
Hervé is an industrial engineer graduate with a master in finances, and has always worked in the industry field, starting in 1988 at General Electric and later as CEO of an aerospace high-tech company designing and producing cockpit instruments and lighting devices. In 2005 Hervé was appointed to create and manage Récylum, the French collective scheme dedicated at the collection and recycling of light sources. Recylum is financed by about 800 lamps producers and has collected and recycled more than 300 million lamps and 24,000 tons of professional electrical equipment from over 22.000 collections points. Hervé is deeply involved in both waste and lighting sectors and is a member of the French National Waste Council and Board Member of the Association Francaise de l’Eclairage. Since April 2018, he is chairman of EucoLight
Nigel Harvey- Recolight
Nigel has worked in the Product Compliance Industry since 1990 in a variety of senior management roles covering marketing, business development, and operational management. Nigel joined Recolight as Chief Executive and Company Secretary in 2009. He is chairman of the UK’s WEEE compliance scheme trade association, the WEEE Scheme Forum (WSF) and director of WSF Ltd. He is a PCS guest in the Joint Trade Association (JTA) working to obtain a fair UK WEEE system and member of the BSI committee that reviews WEEE standards and of the industry grouping that advised BIS on the implementation of dual use for WEEE in 2014. Nigel was voted Lux Magazine Person of the year in 2012 and has been named as one the UK’s 100 most influential people in the waste/resources industry for the last three years. Nigel Harvey is Vice-chairman of EucoLight
Ieva Vardanyan- Lighting Industry Association (LIA)
Ieva comes from a Design and Technology background, studying the subject at the University of Technology Kaunas in Lithuania. She then went on to graduate in Business Management at the University of Wolverhampton.
Joining the LIA in 2015, Ieva specialised in supporting the technical and operational activities of the LIA Laboratory, which is Europe’s largest independent test laboratory dedicated to lighting.
In 2017 the LIA launched the Market Compliance Scheme, introduced due to member concerns that the lighting market is not a level playing field due to quality and compliance issues.”
Monika Romenska- EXPRA
Monika Romenska has held senior positions in public administration, Local authorities’ and Industry organizations in Bulgaria. Since 2014, Ms Romenska is Regulatory & Public Affairs Manager at the Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance (EXPRA) based in Brussels, which acts as the authoritative voice and common policy platform representing the interests of all its 26 member packaging recovery and recycling organizations founded and run by or on behalf of obliged industry. She has extensive experience in local and regional self-government, sustainable development, incl. waste management (with a focus on packaging), regional development, communications and project management.
Richard Allen- Retailers against VAT abuse schemes
Richard describes himself as an “accidental tax expert” having fallen into the world of tax after 20 years in the music industry. He founded Retailers Against VAT Abuse Schemes (RAVAS) in 2009 and was successful in ending a mail order industry in the Channel Islands that relied on the abuse of an import VAT exemption called LVCR. Since then Richard had assisted the EU Commission with information relevant to the development of the Digital Single Market and the abolition of LVCR. More recently has been at the forefront of the campaign to expose VAT evasion on eBay and Amazon by third-party sellers and appeared in front of the Treasury Committee and Public Accounts Committee in Westminster and extensively in the media.
Triin Saag- Emota
Triin is the Director of Government Affairs of EMOTA, which represents national e-commerce associations and several corporate online traders and platforms vis-à-vis the European institutions.
She is leading the policy and advocacy of EMOTA, including the EU consumer legislation, international trade, digital agenda, payments and other European dossiers with an impact on online selling.
Triin has a long-standing experience in European Union affairs, both in private and public sector and holds a degree in EU Law. She has worked for many years in the European Parliament, as a political and legal advisor to its Members.
She is originally from Estonia and loves travelling, skiing and is entrepreneurial by heart!
Léon Mölenberg- Ecommerce Europe
Dr. Léon Mölenberg is senior policy consultant and legal advisor at Thuiswinkel.org (www.thuiswinkel.org), the Dutch Association of Distant Sellers and Service Providers and at Ecommerce Europe, the European association representing web traders.
His expertise is on distance selling and ecommerce consumer law, contract terms, ADR, competition and privacy & data protection.
Hans Ingels- European Commission DG Grow
Hans Ingels is the Head of the Single Market Policy, Mutual Recognition and Market Surveillance Unit in the European Commission’s DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. The Unit is also responsible for Council Directive 85/374/EEC concerning liability for defective products.
Hans Ingels obtained a Law Degree (KULeuven – Belgium), a Degree in Notarial Studies (KULeuven – Belgium), a Postgraduate in Company Law (KUBrussel Belgium) and a Master Degree in European and International Law (VUBrussel – Belgium).
He joined the European Commission in 1995 and spent most of his career on files related to the single market for products.
Bettina Lorz- European Commission DG Environment
Bettina Lorz is a senior expert in the European Commission Directorate General for the Environment, Waste Management and Secondary Materials Unit. Since January 2015, she coordinates the ‘waste stream sector’, inter alia including legislation on waste from electrical and electronic equipment and related restricted substances, batteries and packaging and packaging waste. Bettina also advises on international matters and, from 2010 to 2014 was seconded to the EU Delegation in Nairobi, Kenya, as the EU Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environmental Programme and UN-Habitat.
A lawyer by training, Bettina has an experience of more than 28 years in the European Commission, having worked on a large spectrum of EU and global environmental, consumer policy and internal market issues.
Philippe Portalier- Orgalime -The European Technology Industries
Philippe Portalier coordinates the Orgalime advocacy on the Union technical harmonisation legislation, risk assessment, standardisation and conformity assessment of relevance to the industry in the electrical, electronic, mechanical and metalworking sectors. This led him to work on the three Goods Packages of 2007, 2013 and 2017, the alignment of EU harmonisation legislation with the New Legislative Framework (NLF) for the marketing of industrial products (2014-2016). Since 2001, Philippe Portalier represents Orgalime in PROSAFE stakeholder workshops. Before joining Orgalime in 1998, he worked for 12 years for various public and private organisations in France, including the European Commission (in the former Parisian info-centre “Sources d’Europe”) and the household appliance maker “Groupe Brandt”. Philippe holds a Bachelor in EU Legal Affairs from the Sorbonne University (Paris, 1986) and in Industrial Property Law (1985).
Davide Rossi – Optime
Davide Rossi – Lawyer, enrolled in the Court of Milan since 1995 – is, since 2017, president of the OPTIME Federation, the Permanent Observatory for the Protection of the Electronics Market in Italy. He is also the General Manager of AIRES, a national association representing the main groups operating in the distribution and sales of household appliances, Director and Vice President of Ediel Holding Srl, and board member of Asseprim-Confcommercio, Remedia consortium, Notorious Pictures Spa and Confcommercio Impresa Cultura Italia. Equally, he is member of the TV 4.0 Coordination Table at the Ministry for Economic Development.
