The National Markets and Antitrust Commission analyzes packaging waste management in Spain

Spain - 09 / 24 / 2024

The Commission has published a study that examines the management of packaging waste in Spain, underscoring the obstacles that limit competition and efficiency in the industry. The main challenges include entry barriers, lack of coordination and conflicts that hinder the entry of new competitors. The Commission underscores the need for a clear regulatory framework that encourages competition in order to improve efficiency in the management of this waste.

The National Markets and Antitrust Commission (“CNMC”) has published a Study on packaging waste management (E/CNMC/004/21) which analyses, from the standpoint of competition and efficient regulation, how this waste is managed in Spain.

The CNMC study identifies the following barriers that hinder competition and efficiency in this area.

Barriers to authorization and the entry of new Collective Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs).
Constraints on producers' switching between PROs and on their participation in several PROs.
Difficulties in the relationship between PROs and public authorities.
Absence of regulation in the coordination of competing PROs.
Restrictions in the allocation of packaging waste.
Limitations on traceability and fraud detection.
Risks in the extension of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to commercial and industrial packaging, due to a possible concentration of the activity in the hands of a reduced set of PROs and conflicts of interest within PROS.

To overcome these barriers and encourage competition, the CNMC proposes a series of recommendations:

To reduce entry barriers for new PROs, facilitating the grant of authorizations, eliminating the deadline to sign agreements with the public authorities and make the possibility of changing SCRAPs more flexible.
To establish an efficient and pro-competitive framework for coordination between public and private agents, regulating, in detail, the coexistence of competing systems, creating a coordinating and supervisory body, introducing a single agreement system with each public authority, with financial compensation between PROs based on market shares, preparing a standard agreement at state level, with consensus on minimum quality requirements among all agents concerned and giving the authorities the material and human resources necessary.
To promote transparency improving the traceability of packaging waste and fraud detection.
To prevent and remedy conflicts of interest, for example by restricting the participation of associations and federations in PROs due to the risk of their involvement influencing their partners and an increase in anti-competitive conduct.
To encourage competition in the allocation of waste, developing the regulation on the system of electronic allocation of packaging waste.

The CNMC underscores the importance of actively encouraging competition in the packaging waste management sector. In its opinion, without a regulatory framework that clearly promotes competition, entry barriers, lack of coordination and conflicts can hinder or even prevent the entry of new competitors.