The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine recently adopted the Technical Regulation on Ecolabelling, based on the new EU Ecolabel Regulation (Regulation (EC) No. 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 on the EU Ecolabel).

This Regulation establishes procedures governing use of voluntary ecolabelling in Ukraine, as well the development of applicable environmental criteria.

The Regulation applies to goods or services which are supplied for distribution, consumption or use on Ukraine's market whether in return for payment or free of charge, except for:

  • Medicinal products for human use;

  • Veterinary products;

  • Medical devices; and

  • Goods containing substances or preparations/mixtures meeting the criteria for classification as toxic, hazardous to the environment, carcinogenic, mutagenic (except for certain categories of goods with concentration of hazardous substances not higher than 0,1 % of product weight).

To use an ecolabel, an entity needs to undergo verification of compliance with specified environmental criteria. Such verification is carried out by an ecolabeling body in compliance with the international standard ISO 14024 (ДСТУ ISO 14024). Compliance with the environmental criteria will be certified by an ecolabel certificate.

The Regulation prohibits use of vague, misleading or false ecolabels on product labels, packaging, goods' and services' documentation, technical bulletins and marketing materials. Manufactures and suppliers of goods or services may not use unverified statements such as "environmentally clean", "environmentally safe", "eco friendly", "soil friendly", "non-polluting", "green", "nature friendly", "ozone friendly" etc.

The label "...- free" may be applied only if a concentration of an indicated substance does not exceed the concentration limits.

Law: Technical Regulation on Ecolabelling adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 529 dated 18 May 2011.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 08/06/2011.