New Laws and Regulations September 2017

It’s three months to Christmas, how are the new year resolutions coming along? Whatever the case, this month comes with the following new laws and regulations.

Environmental Laws

More Efficient vacuum cleaners

In attempt to reduce the amount of electricity used up by vacuum cleaners in German homes, a law comes into effect this month that will require companies to produce vacuum cleaners with a maximum power of 900 watt without reducing the suction power of the cleaner. This is a drop from the previous 1600 watt limit allowed. This will ensure more efficient vacuum cleaners as the new ones will consumer less power but will function at the same capacity or even better than previous models. The efficiency label on vacuum cleaners will also be changed to match the new policy, instead of the ranking from A to G, the new ones will have a ranking from A+++ to D.

The noise of a vacuum cleaner will also be expected to be reduced. The new limit for the noise has been set to 80 decibels

 

Traffic Laws

Low Cost Parking for Car-Sharing Rides

Car-sharing riders have  something to be happy about this month. The municipalities and the federal states have been allowed to offer free to cheaper parking spots for car-sharing rides. How the different states will implement this has been left open to them.

 

Animal Rights

Protection for pregnant animals

Slaughter houses will no longer be allowed to slaughter cows or pigs in the third trimester of their pregnancy. This is based on research that shows that the fetuses in the third trimester can feel the pain of the parent. However, this prohibition will not apply to goats and sheep, this is because their time of insemination is often not planned by the farm proprietor as in the case with cows and pigs.

Stricter laws for Fur farmers

Farmers keeping animals for their fur will be required to get an official permit before they can breed such animals.

 

 

Elections

This is definitely not a new law, but a reminder that the federal elections i.e. the electing of a new federal parliament are set for the 24th September. For those voting, remember you have two votes: the first (Erststimme) – where you vote for an individual you would like to represent you in the federal parliament in Berlin and the second vote (Zweitstimme) – where you vote for a party to represent you in the parliament.