Tarsus Group, organiser of Labelexpo Europe, is planning to deliver its most ambitious show to date in a year from now, bringing the global industry back together after the challenges faced from the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Inception Roadmap consultation has been opened until 02 November. The initiative aims to revise and expand EcoDesign initiative (currently only for energy products) to a diverse range of products including electronics, textiles, furniture, among others. The goal is to increase durability, reuse, repairability, recyclability and remanufacturing of products, even at the expense of a short-term increase in costs.

Tarsus Group, organizer of Labelexpo India 2020 and Brand Print India 2020, has today confirmed that the upcoming editions of the co-located shows, due to take place at India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR from 2 – 5 December, have been postponed in light of ongoing concerns over coronavirus/COVID-19.

ECHA announced that they received a notification from the Greek competent authority of their intention to submit a dossier for the harmonization of the classification of Ethanol by the end of 2020. The proposal will include a classification of toxic to reproduction category 2, which could have a major impact in industry across the board. Ethanol is used, among others, as a disinfectant, cleaning agent, and an ink solvent in printing applications. A Classification Task Force representing all affected industry sectors is active in preparing an impact assessment of the proposal.

FINAT, the European self-adhesive and narrow web industry association, is launching the second edition of its #LABELicious Competition. The Competition was introduced last year as part of FINAT’s aim to reach out to students and young professionals around Europe as part of the association’s campaign to attract young talents to its workforce. This year’s edition will focus on a selected number of countries, education institutes and label companies.

Today, after ample consideration and carefully having monitored the situation around Covid-19, FINAT's Executive Board took the decision to transform the Technical Seminar into a virtual event. For the time being, the dates of 2-4 December 2020 will be maintained, but more information will be disclosed as soon as the Seminar Programme Committee has reviewed the programme. Stay tuned.

Under normal circumstances, the annual FINAT President's Report would have been presented at the General Assembly on the occasion of the European Label Forum. This year, for reasons well-known, the FINAT members met in a virtual setting on 27 August last.

On September 2, the European Commission published the 15th amendment to the FCM regulation 10/2011. New substances added to positive list, more stringent migration limits defined, migration testing possible with entire devices (instead of testing individual components).

Sometime during the spring of 2002 while I was camping in Mumbai, a father son duo came to meet me to seek my advice on the way forward in their label printing business. They were making labels for beer and liquor companies by outsourcing printing from sheetfed offset printers and then embellishing them at their factory, Hot foiling, Embossing, Die-cutting, etc.

This year’s RADAR Converter Survey dedicated a special section on the impact of Covid-19 measures on the label industry.