The Constitutional Court has rejected our request to suspend the Interregional Cooperation Agreement (ICA) Litter. This means the Court does not follow Fost Plus's reasoning that payment of the litter levy would cause Fost Plus difficult-to-remedy harm.
Fost Plus respects this ruling. Pending the ruling on the merits, which is still ongoing, we will therefore comply with all obligations arising from this decision. We expect to receive the first assessment notice from the authorities shortly, and the members concerned will also be sent their invoice.
The ICA Litter is the Belgian transposition of the European litter provisions arising from the Single-Use Plastics Directive. It is an annual levy of 102 million euros, divided among producers of single-use packaging that frequently ends up as litter. In concrete terms, this means, among other things, that the costs of cleaning, street sweeping, and emptying public waste bins are shifted from local authorities to producers.
The levy and its pass-through have been imposed on Fost Plus by the authorities. While we endorse the principle of the EPR Litter, we believe the current national legislation has shortcomings. This is what we have challenged, and it is on this point that the Constitutional Court will still have to rule on the merits.
