Amendment of the Construction Products Regulation is now definite

Following the Council’s approval of the revision of the EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR) on 5 November 2024, the legal act is now awaiting publication in the Official Journal and will introduce significant changes for the product compliance of construction products. In addition to strengthening the internal market, the aim of the amendment is to boost environmental and digital change.

New regulations for economic operators

The CPR expands the group of economic operators subject to obligations. In addition to manufacturers, importers and distributors, fulfilment service providers (Article 27 CPR) and operators of online marketplaces (Article 28 CPR) are now also subject to a specific set of obligations. As before, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to draw up a declaration of performance and conformity for a construction product that falls within a harmonised technical standard (Article 13 CPR) in order to be able to successfully place the product on the market. The manufacturer is responsible for the conformity of the product with the declared performance and the applicable requirements. It must comment on all mandatory performance characteristics and provide a complete list of the relevant properties. This information is included in the combined declaration of performance and conformity, which also contains important details on the environmental performance of the product.

Environmentally sustainable construction products

The amendment also authorises the European Commission (Article 7(1) CPR) to define product requirements for covered construction products by means of a delegated act, which for the first time may also include provisions on environmental and climate sustainability as well as recyclability (see Annex 3). This means manufacturers may be obliged to design construction products in such a way that their durability and the minimisation of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions match the current state of the art.

Extended scope of application

The new CPR also contains new provisions with regard to the product categories and families covered. For the first time, used construction products (Article 2 CPR) and construction products manufactured using 3D printing technology (Article 3 CPR) are also covered. Contrary to the European Parliament’s intention, prefabricated houses of certain sizes no longer fall within the scope of the amendment.

Digital product passport for construction products and complaints portal for consumers

Another centrepiece of the innovations introduced by the amendment to the CPR is the digital product passport for construction products (Article 75 CPR onwards), which provides information on the environmental sustainability of construction products such as recycling rates and durability. The provisions on the digital product passport enable simple digital access to product information (via a QR code or similar) directly from construction sites, for example.

The amendment to the CPR also focuses on new digital solutions in the area of market surveillance: The Commission’s new complaints portal (Article 63 CPR) enables consumers and competitors to submit complaints about possible non-conformity directly to the European Commission, which in turn will forward substantiated complaints to the Member State responsible. The complaints portal allows the European legislators to reinforce market surveillance and thus increase the potential for penalties.

Partial transition periods

The new legal situation is made more complex as selected provisions of Regulation (EU) 305/2011 will continue to apply and will not be fully withdrawn until 2039. The distinction between the two legal frameworks is laid down by provisions in Articles 96 and 97 CPR.

The provisions of the CPR relating to the development of standards will be applicable one month after the date of entry into force. However, all other articles of the Regulation will take effect one year after the date of entry into force except for Article 92, which deals with penalties and will apply two years after the date of entry into force.

Given the range of penalties that may be imposed for a breach of the legislation, the economic operators concerned should quickly familiarise themselves with the new requirements in order to take the necessary measures.