New laws: what will change in November 2020

VMany had feared: The corona pandemic has reported back with force. In November this will bring far-reaching restrictions on public life. Still, don’t ignore what else is happening. The most important changes and dates in November.

Energy: make one out of three

The new Building Energy Act (GEG) will come into force on November 1, 2020. The legislature thus combines three previous laws in a single law: the Energy Saving Act (EnEG), the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) and the Renewable Energies Heat Act (EEWärmeG).

The law does not specify a new building standard, rather the EnEV standard from 2016 was adopted, which provides for a KfW 75 house as a minimum requirement for new buildings. In addition, there are minor new obligations, such as energy advice or energy certificates.

The rules for saving energy for residential buildings have not only been summarized, but also nicely structured, as the owners’ association Haus & Grund explains. The regulations for the operation of the system technology, for the energy certificates, for financial support, for enforcement, for the special regulations and fine regulations and finally the transitional regulations are dealt with in separate parts.

In three years it will be examined to what extent climate protection in the building sector has improved. It could then be that requirements will be tightened. But it is already clear that oil heating will not be banned from 2026 if it is operated as a condensing variant in combination with renewable energies. The GEG also provides grants for the exchange.

The GEG applies to all construction projects that are commissioned from November or for which building permits have been issued from this point in time. Already issued permits will be treated according to the old law, even if construction begins after November 1st.

Prohibition of toxic substances in textiles

Many problematic chemicals can be found in shoes and textiles. These either find their way into textiles as impurities during manufacture in developing countries or they are deliberately added to give them certain properties or colors. 33 of these substances, which are classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction, are prohibited from November if they exceed certain concentrations in clothing, other textiles and footwear. These include several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lead, cadmium, arsenic, or chromium (VI) oxide.

Products that exceed these limit values ​​may not be placed on the EU market, regardless of their origin of production. The transition period after the publication of the new rules in the European chemicals legislation REACH lasted two years.

Nutri-Score also in Germany

The nutritional traffic light now also appears on German foods. The Nutri-Score, which may be applied to the packaging of ready-made products such as frozen pizzas, breakfast cereals or pickled cucumbers from November, is a voluntary label because the national introduction of extended nutritional labels according to EU law is not mandatory according to the food association.

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Information on the energy content and nutritional values ​​such as fat, sugar, carbohydrates or salt must already be on food packaging throughout the EU. So far, there has not been a solution with traffic light colors in Germany: It is therefore not possible to see at a glance whether a product has a good overall composition. France introduced the Nutri-Score in 2017. Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Luxembourg are already using the label.

Rules for returning travelers

On November 8, the obligation to quarantine for travelers returning from Corona risk areas begins. The paper exit cards should also be a thing of the past. Instead, travelers have to register online.

The new quarantine obligation regulates a sample quarantine ordinance, which, according to the federal government, represents a joint working aid for all states, which should issue their own corresponding regulations on this basis within their own jurisdiction. This could lead to country-specific differences. Entrants should therefore observe the regulations of the federal state responsible for them.

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Celebrations, holidays, events

Basically, however, travelers who enter from abroad and who have stayed in a risk area classified as such by the Robert Koch Institute within the last ten days prior to entry are obliged to go into quarantine immediately after entry. This should last ten days and end five days after entry at the earliest if a negative test result is present.

The test may be carried out on the fifth day after entry at the earliest. In addition, travelers are obliged to contact the authority responsible for them immediately after entry and to point out the existence of the quarantine obligation.

More care with garbage

The law implementing the EU Waste Framework Directive came into force on October 29th. In future, recycled products are to be given priority in public procurement. And with the new duty of care, the state will for the first time have legal action against the destruction of new goods or returns.

For the first time, there is also a legal basis for manufacturers and retailers of single-use plastic products, such as to-go cups or cigarette butts, to participate in the cleaning costs of parks and streets by ordinance.

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„Fast Fashion“-Industrie

According to Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), the new duty of care strengthens the product responsibility of manufacturers and retailers. For the first time, they can be obliged by ordinance to write a transparency report in which they disclose the extent of the destruction of goods and document the measures taken or planned against it. For certain returns or goods overhangs, suitable measures can now also be specified, such as the obligation to donate.

The new law also requires more demanding recycling quotas. In addition to paper, metal, plastic, glass and biowaste, bulky waste and hazardous waste as well as, from 2025, textiles from private households must be consistently collected separately.

Insolvency protection for travel vouchers

Tour operators can also issue their package travel customers with vouchers for trips canceled due to the corona pandemic instead of reimbursing the amount. The relevant ordinance came into force on October 20th.

The voucher is now state-protected against the organizer’s bankruptcy if the trip was booked before March 8, 2020. For this, the state collects a guarantee premium of 0.15 or 0.25 percent of the voucher value – the rate depends on the company size – from the organizers.

Change of car insurance

By November 30, drivers should have canceled their car insurance if they want to change providers. The cancellation must be received by the insurance company no later than one month before the end of the contract term – and that is usually the end of the year. The effort should usually be worth it, because many owners will be able to save a good amount of money when changing their car insurance. However, around 30 percent of all motorists have never changed their insurance, say insurance experts.

This can be an expensive proposition because the insurance companies regularly re-classify the type and regional classes of car policies. And then it can quickly happen that other providers are cheaper.