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COSMETICS and personal care product companies are increasingly looking to eco-friendly packaging to deliver green marketing as well as practical cost-saving advantages. Producers are seeking to raise consumers’ awareness of environmentally-sensitive products by using packaging materials such as wood and decoration such as reusable ribbons and scarves; encouraging thrift by offering refillable fragrance bottles; and saving costs by using lighter packaging materials, that can also be flagged as sustainable on labelling.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has used the momentum created by Europe’s financial crisis to push through legislation on taxation issues that have been politically unpalatable during times of prosperity and growth. But it has not brought European Union (EU) countries’ tax systems closer together through overall harmonisation, to the chagrin of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which still struggle with different systems across EU member states.…

China’s paint and coatings industry is feeling the squeeze as economic growth slows, infrastructure investment is scaled back, and competition between local and overseas players intensifies.

Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimates the annual compound growth rate of the sector’s market value in China will slow to less than 10% this year, having regularly notched up double-digit growth rates prior to 2013.  …

The European Commission has fined two of three companies Euro EUR32.23 million involved in a cartel for private label canned and jarred mushrooms from 2010 to 2012.

Brussels has also given Lutèce, of the Netherlands, immunity from what would have been a EUR20.7 million fine, given it blew the whistle on the cartel’s existence.…

Governments from European countries called on garment companies who sourced from Rana Plaza, Bangladesh, to fund compensation to victims of the building’s collapse one year ago. The message came in a joint statement from the governments of France, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Spain, made by Lilianne Ploumen, Dutch minister for foreign trade and development cooperation at an international Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) meeting yesterday (June 26) in Paris.…

European Union (EU) police agency Europol has hailed as a success a two-day operation against illicit scrap dealers, which yielded 271 arrests and identified 146 cases of theft across Europe. Law enforcement teams, backed by the EU unit, checked 8,300 scrap metal dealers in 20 European countries.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a new European Energy Security Strategy, aimed at further reducing Europe’s reliance on energy imports, notably on politically unreliable trading partners such as Russia.

Its new policy plan was to be debated at the next European Union (EU) summit (European Council) on June 26-27, in Brussels.…

HELPING AND ADVISING EUROPEAN CONSUMERS SHOPPING AND TRAVELLING ABROAD

WHEN CAN ECC-NET OFFICES HELP YOU?

• Air travel

So much can go wrong: flights can be delayed or cancelled; luggage can be lost or damaged; and hidden fees can be charged.…

A European Commission investigation into Fiat’s tax arrangements in Luxembourg has put the spotlight on alleged backdoor subsidies received by Europe’s automobile manufacturers and comes at a difficult time for the sector.

At the heart of the probe is the suggestion that Luxembourg authorities gave Fiat finance and trade an unfair advantage over other companies in a 2012  “tax ruling” that calculated the company’s taxable profits.…

EUROPE’S plastics manufacturers association PlasticsEurope has called on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to maintain its current total daily intake (TDI) maximum for bisphenol A (BPA), saying it will be justified by upcoming studies. 

The call was made by PlasticsEurope Dieter Beyer, representing its polycarbonate/bisphenol A Group, at an EFSA meeting on the topic, in Brussels.…