It has emerged that the company was told last week that it had to cover all the costs accrued during the legal process by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Environment Agency (EA), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Following REPIC's decision not to appeal Mr Justice Wyn Williams' July 2009 decision, the scheme has now been made liable for the costs, which are thought to include barristers fees and charges for the services of the Treasury Solicitor.
A spokesman for BIS told letsrecycle.com: “We hope that this very much ends the matter and that we can draw a line under events and now move the UK WEEE system forward.”
His sentiments were echoed by Adrian Harding, policy advisor for WEEE at the EA, who said: “We have been awarded full costs and that reinforces the fact that the Court found in our favour and confirmed our understanding of the regulations.
“The WEEE Regulations are delivering important environmental outcomes. Less used electrical equipment is going to landfill as more is diverted for reuse and recycling,” he added.
REPIC was unavailable for comment about the implications of this latest development.
However, one WEEE industry expert told letsrecycle.com that he believed REPIC would now have two possible options to ensure it could continue to operate in the post-judicial review ruling WEEE environment.
He explained that it could either look to reduce the size of its manufacturer membership to make it easier for it to reach its obligations – which is thought to be unlikely due to the high-profile nature of many of its members – or, it could look to establish long-term contractual deals with other WEEE schemes to secure the evidence it needs, including Electrolink, which has traditionally held a large surplus of evidence.
Last month, the government wrote to all compliance schemes to clarify that, while schemes could not rely on evidence trading to meet their obligations, they could collect WEEE on behalf of each other under written agreements which had been seen by the regulatory agencies (see letsrecycle.com story).
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