The EU Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Directive: the implementation of producer responsibility across the EU-27

This article explores how the producer responsibility (PR) principle of the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) 2002/96/EC has been transposed and im-plemented by the EU-27 Member States, focusing in particular on business to consumer WEEE. It adopts a systematic approach in identifying the conceptual, legal, and practical ele-ments that need to be evaluated with this regard and offers an empirical overview of how they have been shaped at the national level. The article analyses the characteristics (both similari-ties and discrepancies) of the systems actually in place in the EU Member States to collect and manage WEEE. Some of them can be explained based on the discretion that the WEEE Di-rective allows to the Member States on many aspects which are relevant for the implementation of PR. Others, instead, are the result of an incorrect transposition/implementation of the WEEE Directive, fostered by the uncertainties surrounding the PR concept and the practical obstacles to its implementation.