Contract with GTC

The fulfillment of obligations through the EKO-KOM collective compliance system is ensured based on the Contract made with Authorised packaging company EKO-KOM, a.s. (the “APC” or “Our Company”). Therefore, your company is also a contractual partner of Our Company based on the existing Contract on Collective Compliance (the “Contract”). Our Company wishes to continue ensuring the fulfillment of your statutory obligations through the EKO-KOM collective compliance system so that the statutory requirements are met.

The Contract, which Our Company enters into with its clients, must comply with applicable legislation. The Contract was last amended in 2011.

The following laws and other legislative acts relevant to the content of the Contract have been recently amended or issued:

• Amendment of Packaging Act No. 477/2001 Coll. made by Act No. 545/2020 Coll.;
• Directive (EU) 2019/904 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment;
• Act No. 243/2022 Coll., on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment.

At the same time, there are discussions on other intents that may directly affect the terms and conditions of collective compliance in the future and, in this context, the Contract itself. This means we need to be more flexible in our ability to effectively respond to the implementation of these intents and ensure compliance with the uniform terms and conditions of the collective compliance with statutory requirements.

As a result, we have had to amend the existing Contract structure and incorporate the new legislative requirements into the draft of a new Contract. To ensure the fulfillment of your obligations through the EKO-KOM collective compliance system, you will need to replace your existing Contract with a new one.

We have created a new Contract based on the original one as much as possible. We believe that we have adapted it to keep the original principles intact while making changes, additions, or removals of specific provisions to align it with the current state of the law.

We would like to inform you about the changes that are the main reasons for renewing your existing Contract and the main differences between the new Contract (which includes the Contract document, the General Terms and Conditions – “GTC” -, and their annexes) and your existing Contract.

First of all, we have decided to change the structure of the Contract formally. The Contract is newly composed of three parts: the Contract itself, the GTC and the Appendices. We have made this decision after careful consideration. We decided to take this step because we need to respond flexibly to legislative amendments that occur frequently and rapidly within the European Union and our legislation. These changes can extend, modify or amend our obligations. They are often adopted shortly before implementation by EKO-KOM, a.s. or other entities cooperating within the EKO-KOM collective compliance system. In the Contract, we will thus declare our basic mutual obligations, and the GTC will specify these obligations in detail. If our obligations change in the future due to the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic (the “MoE”) or legislative changes, we can update them in the GTC without having to sign new Contracts with all clients. The details of the terms and conditions for making changes to the GTC are outlined in the Contract.

In addition, as part of the new Contract, some substantive changes have been made to the rights and obligations outlined in the Contract. These changes include, in particular, the following:

• The transition to the new Contract results in adjustments and changes of contractual penalties for breaching contractual obligations, which are newly regulated in Article XXIII. of the GTC. One significant change is reducing the contractual penalty for submitting incomplete or false information in any statement. Under the current wording of the Contract, the APC is entitled to charge a contractual penalty in the amount of twice the difference between the remuneration of the APC calculated using the information provided and the remuneration calculated using complete and truthful information (as per Article XX. Paragraph 1, sentence two of the current Contract). The APC is now entitled to charge a contractual penalty of only half the difference found, pursuant to Article XXIII. Paragraph 3 of the GTC. The contractual penalties for default of submitting the statement remain unchanged. Additionally, there is a comprehensive revision of the contractual penalties, which can be found in Article XXIII. of the GTC.
• Article V. Paragraph 3 of the GTC introduces a new obligation for the client to prepare a corrective statement after the audit based on its results. The client is obliged to submit this corrective statement to the APC within thirty (30) calendar days of the auditor’s report submission date. Failure to comply with this obligation may result in a contractual penalty pursuant to Article XXIII. Paragraph 2 of the GTC.
• We also understand the clients may want to contribute to environmental protection through superior compliance of their take-back and recovery of packaging waste, or exceptional compliance of other obligations under the Packaging Act. We have incorporated the following conditions in Article XI. of the GTC so that all our clients can comply with the legislation. These conditions allow APC clients to voluntarily assume commitments in the area of so-called Extended Producer Responsibility beyond the commitments required by law.
• Clients not established in the Czech Republic may fulfill their obligations under the Packaging Act by appointing an Authorised Representative as defined in the Packaging Act Section 13a. Given this possibility, in Article XII. of the GTC, we have also regulated the procedure for concluding the Contracte in the case of using an Authorised Representative. Additionally, we have outlined the conditions for performing obligations under the Contract when the client has an Authorised Representative.

Please review the Contract and familiarize yourself with its content, including the text of the GTC and their annexes.

The Contract is concluded only in the Czech language. If necessary, you can find all the information in English on our website (including a liberal translation of the Contract).

By signing the new Contract, the previous Contract, including all annexes, will be automatically terminated and replaced (as per Article VII. Paragraph 1 of the new Contract).

Our Company is prepared to conclude the Contract in the form sent by us as soon as it is duly concluded on your part according to the procedure outlined in the new Contract.

Offer to enter into the Contract in its new wording is made subject to the amendment of the offer during the time you have for entering into it. Our company is thus entitled, for legislative or operational reasons, to unilaterally adjust the wording of the Contract or the GTC, including the annexes, between the time of making the offer and its acceptance. We are entitled to do so in accordance with Article V. of the new version of the Contract, which you can find here. The offer remains valid after this change, but the wording of the documents is adjusted according to the announced change.

Following the legal obligation of Our Company to ensure uniformity of the terms of the Contract in relation to all clients of Our Company under the Packaging Act Section 21 Paragraph 1 Letter a), we kindly request that you conclude the new version of the Contract. To ensure uniformity in the collective compliance terms under the previous sentence, we must further terminate the existing Contract that we concluded with you by giving a notice of termination under the terms and conditions of the existing Contract. This step is enforced by our duty to ensure uniformity of the terms for all our clients. Nonetheless, we remain prepared to ensure the fulfilment of your obligations through the EKO-KOM collective compliance system. We recommend you conclude the new Contract no later than before the end of the current contractual period to maintain continuity in fulfilling your obligations set out in the Packaging Act. Long-term coexistence of two different types of Contracts is not possible.

For the avoidance of doubt, the so-called Fee discount under the existing Contract will be maintained for the year 2024 under the current conditions. For the purposes of the new Contract, the Fee discount for 2024 and the conditions for its application are detailed in the Price List, which is Annex 3 to the GTC.

Furthermore, please be advised that the new Contract applies to all clients and cannot consider specific requests, especially those that would alter the principles of the Contract and its solution. This is due to the above-mentioned legal obligation to maintain uniformity of the terms and conditions of collective compliance. The new text of the Contract has also been discussed with the MoE, and the Office for the Protection of Competition.