EU in favour of competition.
On 20th April 2001, the EU Commission ruled that the Duales System Deutschland AG was not permitted to demand a licence fee from manufacturers for simply labelling their products with the trade mark "Der Grüne Punkt". It also ruled that if a manufacturer is able to prove that its products were being collected and recycled by another systems provider in Germany then it need not pay a fee to DSD AG. The payment of a licence fee by a manufacturer is, therefore, directly linked to the service which is actually performed. This ruling, therefore, set the course for opening up the market to self-management systems and dual waste management systems (Official Journal of the European Union, Case COMP D3/34493 – DSD).
* Act for Promoting Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management and Ensuring Environmentally Compatible Waste Disposal
