Duty of care ”: New law should make it more difficult to destroy new goods

The problem is not new, but is often the subject of media attention: mail order companies do not have unlimited space in their warehouses. In order to be able to store new goods, other products must first disappear. Ideally, this is done by selling them to customers. But there are also shopkeepers who cannot be brought to the man or woman at short notice. Here it is often cheaper for companies to simply destroy these items than to store them longer. The result: In some cases, undamaged new goods that have never been delivered to a customer end up in the garbage. A similar problem also exists with returns: A not inconsiderable part of the returned goods are destroyed, although they are actually undamaged.
The destruction of new goods is a big problem
From a legal point of view, there is nothing wrong with this procedure. However, the question naturally arises whether this is a sensible and sustainable use of resources. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) has now announced a change in the current legal situation. Specifically, the Circular Economy Act is to be revised. There are plans to establish a so-called custody of retailers there. How exactly this will be designed is currently not known in detail. But the goal is clear: undamaged new goods should no longer be thrown away so easily. Research by “Bild am Sonntag” shows that there is a certain problem here: According to this, the Amazon warehouse in Winsen alone leaves a truck with new goods every week, which then ends up in the garbage.

Details of the new regulation are still unknown
However, the federal government's approach is also not without its problems. On the one hand, there is the fundamental question of whether the state should prescribe how companies should handle their goods. In addition: Many online retailers - such as Amazon or Zalando - are now increasingly acting as a marketplace. The products sold there are therefore stored and sent by the online retailer. However, they still belong to a third-party dealer until they are sold. This raises the question of who is then responsible for handling the goods in question. The basic idea behind the planned change in the law is therefore completely understandable. However, it remains to be seen how the regulation will be designed in detail.