The manufacturers have filed lawsuits following a hike in the fees they must pay to recyclers

Multinational companies, including South Korea's LG and Samsung and US-based air conditioning giant Carrier have taken the Indian government to court over its new electronic waste management policy.

The Delhi High Court heard pleas on Tuesday against new e-waste disposal rules, which have led to a hike in fees that manufacturers must pay recyclers.

The Indian government has requested that these petitions be dismissed, according to the Economic Times. 

The new rules mandate a minimum payment of 22 Indian rupees ($0.26) per kg to recycle consumer electronics. Companies say this will triple their costs, as the new prices are 5-15 times higher than the current rates.

In a 380-page court filing, Carrier argued that the Indian government's new electronic waste rules are unfair and arbitrary, Reuters reported. The American company claimed that recyclers were willing to continue working at the previous prices and that the government should not intervene in private agreements between companies and recyclers, the report added. 

"The burden of the benefit being given to the recyclers has been put on the producers, which is unfair and arbitrary," Carrier was cited by Reuters as saying in its court submission. 

Other major appliance manufacturers, including Japan's Daikin and Voltas, owned by the Tata Group, have expressed concerns over the e-waste rules. 

Japanese company Hitachi and Indian multinational Havells had previously filed lawsuits against the Indian government between November 2023 and March 2024, seeking to quash the pricing rules. 

During the hearing on Tuesday, India's environment ministry told the Delhi court that the companies have not produced any evidence of arbitrariness in the government's decision-making process, and that the manufacturers have been party to stakeholder discussions on the issue since 2021, according to the Economic Times. 

The hearing of the petitions has been postponed to August 1.

India's e-waste volumes soared by about 2.5x in six years, from 708,445 metric tons in 2017-18 to over 1.7 million metric tons in 2023-24, with an annual increase of 169,283 metric tons, according to a report in The Hindu.