The Polish government is working on amending the bill on utilized electrical and electronic equipment (UC97). It introduces it because, among another things, the EU Directive (2024/884) requires it. This in turn was the aftermath of the TEU judgement (C-181/20), which was very crucial for people with photovoltaics. That's why we're gonna focus on that now.
The Court found that the existing regulations forced producers to bear the costs of recycling the panels they placed on the marketplace before the applicable rules were in force. It was against EU law. The cost of their disposal was so passed on to the owners. But not all of them.
Do you have a photovoltaic installation before 2016 in a company or farm? You're gonna gotta pay for recycling.
This applies to the "photovoltaic panels for household equipment" which were placed on the marketplace before 1 January 2016, the user (i.e. the owner of the installation) will be liable for financing their disposal. The producers of older installations will no longer gotta worry about it.
However, this request applies to owners of photovoltaic panels, which were intended for non-domestic applications – i.e. in companies, farms, housing communities, public institutions, etc. So average private individuals don't gotta do that. This is mentioned below:
What is different if we have newer panels (put on the marketplace after 1 January 2016). Nothing changes here: recycling remains on the producer's side in both cases. We, as owners, do not bear the costs of disposal – it should be organised and financed by the 1 who sold the panels to the market.
The fresh law besides introduces the work to appoint a alleged authorized typical by abroad companies that marketplace equipment (e.g. photovoltaics), packaging or vehicles, but do not have premises here.
He will be a circumstantial proxy liable for carrying out duties on behalf of these companies (e.g. recycling, reporting, fees). Polish institutions will be able to enforce them more easy than abroad producers.
The government plans to adopt this amendment in the second or 3rd 4th of this year. He must hurry due to the fact that the deadline for the implementation of this EU directive to Polish law is 9 October 2025.
