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Product rule meaning

Published by a LexisNexis EU Law expert
What does Product rule mean?
Product rule (often called a product requirement) describes a rule that governs a product’s characteristics or how it is made—such as composition, size, weight, design, packaging, labelling, testing or certification—rather than the circumstances of its sale. In EU free‑movement of goods law (Article 34 TFEU; Cassis de Dijon; Keck), product rules are measures having equivalent effect if they oblige imports to be altered or to comply with domestic specifications, unless objectively justified and proportionate (e.g. to protect public health, consumers or the environment). They are distinct from “selling arrangements”. In Ireland, usage follows EU case law and harmonised product legislation (technical regulations). In England & Wales and Scotland, the concept remains influential through retained EU case law and the UK Internal Market Act 2020, which secures mutual recognition for goods by reference to requirements about a good’s characteristics, presentation or production. In Northern Ireland, the Windsor Framework means many EU product rules continue to apply to goods placed on the NI market. Practically, classifying a measure as a product rule guides compliance strategies, mutual recognition arguments, notification of technical regulations, and the scope for objective justification and proportionality analysis.
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NEWS
Weekly corporate crime update: ECCTA information-sharing guidance, CrimPR and Privy Council rule changes, OTSI launch, APP fraud reimbursement rules, SFO, FCA, HSE actions—10 October 2024

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct Home Office issues guidance on Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act The Home Office has released guidance on the information-sharing measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA 2023). It outlines provisions to help ensure businesses comply with the new measures, together with practical points for organisations, including arrangements for cross-sector sharing, obligations for law enforcement reporting, UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, and customer redress. See: LNB News 04/10/2024 39. Criminal procedure and evidence...

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NEWS
FCA Anti-greenwashing Rule and UK SDR: Soft-law Shortcomings, Public-sector Conflicts and Multinational Supply-chain Risks, with Proposals for Independent Verification and Director Accountability

This marks the first stage of the regulator’s climate‑related financial disclosure regime to be enforced, covering all FCA‑authorised firms, with rules on the labelling and marketing of investment products arriving later this year from July (see FCA, PS23/16: Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels, 28 November 2023). The regime extends to regulated activities undertaken by private enterprises, listed companies and public sector bodies alike. These measures are intended to ensure that statements made by regulated entities about the sustainability credentials of supposedly green products and services are fair, clear, not misleading, and consistent with the sustainability profile of the product or service. Yet are the new rules sufficient to resolve the problem of misleading information about a company’s green credentials and its products and services? Are these anti‑greenwashing provisions anything more than a greenwashing exercise themselves? They play well in public relations, signalling that government agencies are acting to shape corporate behaviour on climate change. The problem is that, when examined more closely, they are still likely to deliver...

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NEWS
AI and Trial Witness Statements under PD 57AC (England and Wales): drafting constraints and practical uses—transcription, document collation, and cognitive interviewing

Could AI tools be used to draft witness statements? The rule that statements must be recorded in a witness’s 'own words' makes it improbable that a witness could simply feed prompts into an AI platform and present the resulting text as their personal wording. Generative AI, by its essence, draws on innumerable bodies of writing, fusing and compressing them into prose that belongs to no single author. The product of such systems is, by design, not the voice of any particular user. In addition, PD 57AC requires (i) transparency about how the statement was put together and (ii) that it captures the witness’s own knowledge, raising doubts about how a court would view a statement created with AI support. Once drafting is automated, an intermediary stands between the witness and the text, severing the direct link from first-hand recollection to the eventual draft...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Rome II choice-of-law rules for non‑contractual claims: product liability, competition, environmental damage, IP, industrial action, unjust enrichment and related claims (England and Wales; events 2009–2020)

Practice Note Use this Practice Note to identify the governing law before the courts of England and Wales for harmful events that took place between 11 January 2009 and 31 December 2020. Where incidents happened outside those dates, the UK courts will apply an alternative choice-of-law regime, and the regime engaged turns solely on the date of the occurrence. If the date falls outside that span, a different regime applies, selected by reference to timing of the event. For direction on those regimes and how they interrelate, see Practice Note: Applicable law regimes. It summarises the special rules governing particular heads of claim under Regulation (EC) 864/2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II). The topics include product liability, unfair competition and restraints on free competition, environmental harm, intellectual property (IP) rights, industrial action, unjust enrichment, negotiorum gestio—i.e. agency without authority, and culpa in contrahendo—fault in forming a contract, as well as insurance...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Brazil advertising and marketing law: 2021 Q&A on regulation, enforcement, CONAR, influencer and children's adverts, sector-specific rules, promotions, social media and privacy

Advertising and marketing-Brazil-Q&A guide [Archived, 2021 edition] This Practice Note provides a jurisdiction-specific Q&A on advertising and marketing in Brazil, issued within the Lexology Getting the Deal Through series by Law Business Research (October 2021). Authors: IWRCF-Luiz Werneck; Talita Sabatini Garcia. 1. What are the principal statutes regulating advertising generally? the Brazilian Federal Constitution; the Consumer Protection Code (Federal Law No. 8,078/90); the Statute of the Children and Adolescents (Federal Law No. 8,069/90); the Brazilian Advertising Self-Regulation Code; Federal Law No. 5768/71; Decree No. 70,951/1972; Federal Law No. 5,768/71 and Decree No. 70,951/1972 regulate commercial promotions and sweepstakes; National Health Surveillance Agency resolutions. 2. Which bodies are primarily responsible for issuing advertising regulations and enforcing rules on advertising? How is the issue of concurrent jurisdiction among regulators with responsibility for advertising handled? In Brazil, rule-making for advertising is led by the National Advertising Self-Regulation Council (CONAR) and by the government, represented by the House...

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PRACTICE NOTES
UK RAO/FSMA regulated advice, including basic advice on stakeholder products, investments, P2P lending and pension transfers: scope, MiFID II personal recommendations, COBS duties, exclusions and leading cases

This Practice Note outlines the regulated activities of giving basic advice to retail consumers on stakeholder products, and of providing advice on: securities, structured deposits and relevant investments loan-based crowdfunding agreements, and the conversion or transfer of pension benefits Providing basic advice to retail consumers on stakeholder products Under article 52B of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, SI 2001/544 (RAO), giving basic advice to retail consumers on stakeholder products constitutes a regulated activity. This encompasses advice delivered as a recommendation by a person (P), in the course of a business carried on by P, to a ‘retail consumer’. The recommendation must concern a stakeholder product, and certain conditions attached to the provision of basic advice must be satisfied...

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