The European Court of Justice has ruled that Germany must alter its bottle recycling rules. Under its present design the law discriminates against non-German bottles.
According to the ruling the policy, introduced about seven years ago, unfairly protected German products from EU competition.
The court said the recycling rules "hinder the free movement of goods," adding that producers and distributors of drinks outside of Germany were at a disadvantage, because they could not meet the recycling rules in time, and so could not sell their products in the German market.
In Germany, producers and distributors of drinks in non-reusable packaging are, in principle, subject to an obligation to charge a deposit for, and accept the return of, the packaging. It is possible for them to fulfill the obligation by participating in a global collection system such as the Green Dot program.
This possibility is removed for certain drink sectors where, over two consecutive years, the proportion of all drinks in reusable packaging in Germany falls below 72 percent and, for the particular drink sector in question, the proportion of reusable packaging determined in 1991 is not achieved. In January 1999, the German Government announced that in 1997 the proportion of reusable drinks packaging fell below 72 percent for the first time.
Assessments carried out between February 1999 and January 2000 and between May 2000 and April 2001 showed that the proportion remained below 72%.
The rules have angered non-German mineral water companies, which the EU head office argued were unable to compete because of the deposit and return obligations in Germany.
The court agreed, saying the system "causes every producer and distributor to incur, apart from making and labeling costs, additional costs connected with organization of the taking back of packaging."
The court demanded Germany introduce a system that allows drinks makers, including beer and soft drinks producers, to do business fairly across Europe.
It told Germany to give drinks makers a longer period to prepare their businesses for complying with the new system, and to make sure consumers can recover their deposits in a far wider variety of drop-off points.