In an Opinion dated September 3, 2026, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union recommended that the Court strike down, in Directive (EU) 2024/3019 on urban wastewater treatment, the principle of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) applicable solely to the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.
The case was brought before the Court by the Republic of Poland against the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. In his Opinion, the Advocate General recommends the annulment of two parts of Directive (EU) 2024/3019:
• Article 9(1)(a), which requires Member States to establish, by 31 December 2028, an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme to cover 80% of the total costs associated with the treatment of urban waste water, with this EPR scheme applying to producers of the products listed in Annex III to the Directive;
• Annex III, which lists only medicinal products for human use and cosmetic products.
In support of his conclusions, the Advocate General argues, in particular, that:
• the Commission, the Parliament and the Council did not correctly assess the calculation of the shares attributable to pharmaceutical and cosmetic products in water pollution;
• there are doubts as to whether the emissions of certain pollutants should be attributed to the cosmetics industry, and certain other products may need to be included in the EPR;
• it is possible that the responsibility of the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries has been overestimated…
Cosmetics Europe, which has been fiercely opposed to …
