EUREFAS position paper on NLF : A comprehensive compliance framework for the European Refurbishment Sector

EUREFAS strategic priority: Securing European sourcing while ensuring compliance of imports for a transitional period

EUREFAS envisions a European refurbishment ecosystem that is both sustainable and self-sufficient, grounded in fair competition, consumer trust, and legal clarity. Our strategic ambition is to strengthen circular loops within the EU so that, over time, refurbishment increasingly relies on products sourced and processed within Europe. EUREFAS’ ultimate hope is a self-sufficient refurbishment ecosystem within the Union. Currently, reliance on non-EU sourcing exposes the sector to geopolitical volatility and undermines competitiveness: establishing a domestically-sourced supply chain is our most critical priority.

To achieve this, EUREFAS calls for a robust legislative framework and political support to :

Foster and scale buy-back and collection of devices aimed for refurbishment from consumers, companies, waste management organisations and public institutions;
Legally secure EU sourcing by ensuring that products destined for refurbishment are not subject to the same requirements as new products, nor burdened by prohibitive administrative hurdles that exist today.

In the meantime, EUREFAS recognises that imports currently remain essential to meet consumer demand for affordable, high-quality refurbished devices and to ensure sufficient supply for the European market. To bridge the current supply gap, EUREFAS advocates for practical, proportionate, transitional compliance pathways for imported second-hand products. The objective is not to liberalise imports, but to facilitate a compliant and responsible trade framework to support the long-term growth of a European circular economy. These measures should remain transitional, serving our ultimate goal: an EU refurbishment market built on local sourcing, trusted processes, and resilient value chains.

I. Boosting EU sourcing

Policy instruments for boosting domestic supply volume

To ensure a stable feedstock supply, decisive economic and procurement measures must be implemented to increase the volume of products collected domestically. Collection schemes should occur as close as possible to the end-user’s point and moment of discard. This is essential to preserve the product's value and consumer incentive to return it, mitigating harmful disposal such as landfills and illegal exports.

Mandatory Take-Back Mechanisms: EUREFAS advocates for mandatory mechanisms at the point of sale. This includes universal acceptance (retailers must accept used devices regardless of original purchase location) and systematic trade-in offers to nudge consumers towards returning products through transparent values and bonuses.
Circular Hubs: We propose that the EU encourage specialised "drop-off points" in accessible public buildings like city halls and post offices. These hubs would serve as a reuse-focused alternative for high-value resources, strategically located in proximity to consumers.
Procurement Obligations: EUREFAS calls for a procurement mandate requiring both public and private organisations to divert all decommissioned electrical and electronic equipment towards refurbishment value chains as a priority, before considering standard recycling streams.
Awareness Campaigns: Multi-level campaigns should be launched to shift public perception, making product return the default social behaviour. These essential campaigns should be financed, in part, by Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) budgets.

2. The quality mandate: redefining legal and operational frameworks

A structural transformation of the European refurbishment sector requires embedding reuse prioritisation and high-quality collection across the entire supply input process, beginning with essential legislative clarity.

a. Legal framework adjustments for reuse prioritisation

Legal distinction (UEEE vs. WEEE) and hierarchisation of reuse: Authorities must establish a clear legal status that distinguishes "Used" Electrical and Electronic Equipment (UEEE) from "Waste" (WEEE) to maximise EU sourcing and prevent the premature destruction of valuable resources.
Professional sorting and End-of-Waste criteria: The framework should mandate that product sorting be conducted by qualified professionals to assess reusability before any waste classification occurs, a measure that must be complemented by harmonising End-of-Waste (EoW) criteria into a dedicated reuse-first approach.
Verifiable collection objectives: Implementation of specific, verifiable collection objectives within Waste Collection Systems (WAC) is necessary to explicitly separate reuse targets from recycling quotas, ensuring that each stream is managed according to its highest potential value.

b. Operational prioritisation of reuse

Preserving the high value and condition of devices requires mandatory operational and logistical adjustments across all collection schemes. To achieve this, two key requirements must be integrated into the operational infrastructure :

Dedicated infrastructure: the mandated establishment of dedicated sorting infrastructure and specialised operational processes ensures timely testing and assessment of items by reuse professionals, guaranteeing that functional products are preemptively diverted from recycling streams.
EU-wide logistics protocol: all take-back, collection, storage, and transport contracts must include stringent rules for careful packaging and protected storage. Such measures are vital to preserve the reusability of devices and prevent avoidable damage during the logistical phase.

II. Compliance legal framework for refurbished products

Legal framework for any refurbished product sold in the EU

EUREFAS proposes a baseline scenario that codifies current market practices into a reliable and business-compatible compliance framework. This framework is built upon three foundational pillars designed to ensure consumer safety while respecting the operational realities of the circular economy.

Exclusion from "Substantial Modification": Refurbishment should be excluded from the legal scope of "substantial modification". The integrity of the original product is not affected, and original conformity assessments should remain valid. EUREFAS supports vetting "common refurbishment processes" to provide legal safeguards.
Proportional Information: Disclosure of relevant technical product information (ie. energy labelling, recycling, safety, repair information) should be mandatory only if the information is relevant to second-hand products and available from the original manufacturer, ensuring refurbishers do not face an "excessive burden".
Component Accountability: Refurbishers remain responsible for the compliance of any new spare parts they integrate (e.g., replacement batteries with CE markings), consistent with the obligations of any professional utilising new components.

2. Additional proportionate compliance pathways for non-EU used products

To ensure a balanced transition towards a self-sufficient European refurbishment ecosystem, EUREFAS proposes clear and practical compliance pathways for imported refurbished products. These pathways must account for the unique technical and administrative realities of the second-hand market while maintaining high safety standards.

a. Harmonising product requirements with the manufacture date

The current regulatory framework indeed poses a significant hurdle: imported second-hand products often cannot meet the exhaustive Ecodesign and safety requirements applicable to "new" products at the moment they are placed on the EU market. This discrepancy exists because these devices were manufactured before the entry into force of those requirements and cannot retroactively comply with new rules, such as the EU common charger requirements. Furthermore, previous usage naturally affects robustness benchmarks, and devices originally designed for non-EU markets may lack specific regional features like the EU emergency call system.

EUREFAS proposes that for imported used electronics, the main product requirements should apply based on the date of manufacture or first sale in a non-EU country, rather than the date of entry into the EU market.

b. Adapted conformity assessment for imported second-hand goods

The mandatory proof of product compliance must also be revised to align with the specificities of the second-hand sector. Currently, even when a non-EU model is technically comparable to an EU-approved version, and even if the “manufacturing date” rule stated above is applied, refurbishers are unable to provide an original EU Declaration of Conformity or full technical documentation, as these must be signed by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) following a rigorous testing process.

To resolve this, EUREFAS advocates for the creation of a new economic operator sub-category: the "Importer of Second-Hand Products".

This category would enable three adapted conformity assessment paths to prove that non-EU products met EU requirements when new:

OEM Cooperation: Manufacturers would accept attesting that a non-EU model is comparable to an EU-compliant one, providing the necessary Declaration of Conformity and technical documentation to refurbishers.
Cross-Country Equivalency Agreements: Products originating from signatory countries would benefit from certification equivalence, removing the need for additional documentation or testing.
Sector-Led Industrial Testing: The refurbishment sector would facilitate testing of non-EU models against essential EU requirements -such as the RED Directive, SAR limits, and hazardous substance restrictions -through notified EU certification bodies. To ensure efficiency, a single test for a specific model would suffice for the entire industry, allowing multiple refurbishers to use the resulting data for their individual Declarations of Conformity. Ideally, full technical documentation would not be mandatory, or refurbishers would be permitted to refer to the documentation of an equivalent EU model.

c. Centering compliance on the declaration of conformity

Historically, the CE marking has served as a mandatory yet basic indicator of compliance. EUREFAS advocates for a shift in paradigm, prioritising the DoC as the primary legal evidence of product safety and conformity. For imported used electronics, EUREFAS supports the introduction of a non-mandatory CE marking as an alternative to physical engravings.

Relying on the Declaration of Conformity significantly reduces the administrative and technical burden on refurbishers. By recognising digital and document-based proof, the EU can maintain rigorous safety standards while fostering a more agile and efficient circular economy, in line with the principles of its simplification agenda.

3. Transition regime for imports

To balance current import flows with the goal of a closed-loop economy, EUREFAS proposes that adapted compliance pathways for non-EU products be implemented as a temporary measure. This period allows the industry to establish a profitable domestic supply through enhanced collection schemes.

While the exact duration required to reach domestic self-sufficiency is difficult to predict with absolute certainty, EUREFAS estimates a 10-year timeframe to mature the EU’s internal sourcing infrastructure. We encourage the European Commission to conduct data-driven assessments every five years to evaluate if domestic volumes meet demand. This monitoring should mirror existing frameworks in the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), specifically Article 5.10.b.5, which mandates analyses of feedstock availability to oversee the shift towards European strategic autonomy.

III. Necessary safeguards and market integrity

To prevent the misuse of this tailored framework by unfair players and to ensure the integrity of the sector, EUREFAS proposes a robust set of safeguards to ensure a level playing field and effective oversight.

EUREFAS maintains that a level playing field can only be achieved through a multi-layered approach that targets fraud at its source, establishes clear accountability for players along the value chain, and enforces "compliance by design" principles on all channels.

Addressing fraud at the source requires Member States to adopt stricter, harmonised criteria for the issuance and verification of VAT numbers. By requiring tangible proof of real economic activity, such as physical premises and payroll, authorities can effectively dismantle the shell companies often used for VAT evasion. This should be complemented by a centralised EU "black list" of fraudulent entities, allowing both refurbishers, platforms and enforcement agencies to preemptively block rogue actors.
To guarantee full traceability, a mandatory registration system for all importers of second-hand electronics is essential. A centralised EU "One-Stop-Shop" (OSS) portal would provide a single, reliable database for enforcement authorities, facilitating targeted customs controls without imposing fragmented administrative burdens on legitimate businesses.
Platforms should take a proactive role in vetting sellers. This transition to "compliance by design" involves mandatory upfront Know-Your-Business (KYB) verification and the implementation of technical blocks that prevent the listing of products lacking valid Declarations of Conformity or importer registration. Furthermore, marketplaces should ensure compliance with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) by requiring valid Unique Identifiers (IDU) for eco-contributions, with a co-liability mechanism in place where these identifiers are absent, leveraging an OSS system.
Finally, these preventative measures must be supported by enhanced post-sales controls and corrective actions. EUREFAS proposes a simplified, EU-wide notification mechanism to allow industry stakeholders to report suspicious patterns directly to authorities. In tandem, marketplaces should commit to regular, randomised audits, including mystery shopping to verify that sellers maintain their economic reality and that listed products continue to meet the high standards expected of the European circular economy.

EUREFAS calls on the European Commission and Member States to support this roadmap as a critical step towards European strategic autonomy. By bridging current market realities with long-term circular ambitions through legal clarity and targeted incentives, we can build a resilient, competitive, and trusted refurbishment ecosystem that serves as a cornerstone of the Union’s sustainable and closed-loop economy.