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EU Regulatory Update: New Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)

Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.09.12

EU Member States have until February 14, 2014 to implement into their national laws the new WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU which was recently published in the Official Journal.

The new WEEE Directive introduces significant changes to Directive 2002/96/EC to improve collection, re-use and recycling of used electronic devices including:

  • revising collection and recovery targets: from 2016, EU member states must collect annually 45% of the average weight of EEE placed on their national markets; from 2016, EU member states are to achieve a 65 % collection rate (with certain exceptions);
  • widening the scope of EEE covered by the legislation;
  • providing for collection at large retail shops of small WEEE free of charge to end-users; and
  • introducing tighter controls on illegal shipments of e-waste from the EU.

In order to obtain assistance for compliance with WEEE legislation or any other EU regulatory issues, please contact the professional listed to the left, or your regular Crowell & Moring contact.

Insights

Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26

DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability

On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”...