CAR PARTS : PARLIAMENT VOTES TO ABOLISH DESIGN PROTECTION.

The European Parliament took a step closer to ending the 17-year-long saga on whether or not to apply design protection to car spare parts. By adopting, on 12 December, amendments to the so-called Design Directive (98/71/EC), originally proposed by the European Commission in September 2004, the EP has chosen to abolish design protection for visible vehicle parts such as body panels, bumpers, wings and bonnets, lighting, and automotive glass. The EP thus followed the Legal Affairs Committee, approving a report by Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP-ED, Germany) and granting member states a five-year transition period before full liberalisation . Consumers, too, should be "duly informed" about the origin of spare parts.

For Jacques Toubon and Jean-Paul Gauzes (EPP-ED, France), the EP's vote opens the door to counterfeiting. "This will allow dangerous competitors such as China and India to launch unrestrained production of these materials," added Toubon and Gauzes. ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, has long feared this moment. "We are absolutely against the abolition of design protection," ACEA's Mark Greven said. He admitted that car makers will not go out of business. "But this proposal comes on top of other regulatory costs such as CO2 emissions. Relatively few car makers make healthy profits in Europe. Does the EU want a competitive European car industry or not," he asked. ACEA had lobbied for a ten-year period of protection for each new design.

For supporters of the repairs clause, the EP has sent a signal to end price and trade distortions. Commissioner Charlie McCreevy even argued that consumers pay 6% to 10% more for spare parts in member states with design protection. "The consumer pays for the design when buying a new car or other product; he should not be forced to pay again each time he needs a spare part," McCreevy told MEPs. Rapporteur Klaus-Heiner Lehne disputed McCreevy's figures, indicative according to him of misleading arguments. "Prices for spare parts are higher in liberalised UK than in non-liberalised Germany," said Lehne. He fears consumers will now pay manufacturers more for new...