Aikon sponsors IFA Circular Tech 2026: where the EU's circular agenda meets device makers and refurbishers

What IFA Circular Tech is

IFA Circular Tech is the dedicated circular-economy track within the broader IFA Berlin conference. It launched as a focused stream several years ago and has grown into a substantial event in its own right, drawing thousands of attendees across the eight days of IFA and producing some of the most concrete conversations on the EU's evolving circular agenda.

The mix of attendees is unusually broad. Refurbishers and ITAD operators sit alongside material recyclers, repair-rights advocates, device OEMs, EU policy staff, and the growing layer of B2B platforms and infrastructure providers building tools for the secondary market. The combination produces conversations that cut across the silos that normally fragment the circular industry.

Why Aikon is sponsoring

Aikon's sponsorship of IFA Circular Tech reflects the centrality of the EU market in the global circular electronics conversation. The EU's regulatory framework, including the Right to Repair, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the battery replaceability rules taking effect in 2027, sets the agenda that operators across the world increasingly have to engage with.

The Aikon platform is the operational layer that connects refurbishers, ITAD operators, and resellers across borders, and the EU is one of the most active geographies on the network. Sponsor presence at Circular Tech is the natural in-person counterpart to that ongoing platform activity.

What will dominate the conversation in 2026

Three threads will likely define IFA Circular Tech 2026. The first is the operationalisation of the EU's Right to Repair regulations and what that means for refurbishment workflows in practice. The second is the maturation of the consumer-side refurbished marketplace in Europe, with Back Market, Refurbed, and Reebelo all now at meaningful scale and competing for upstream supply. The third is the growing scale of enterprise ITAD in the EU, driven by sustained corporate IT refresh cycles in banking, telcos, and the public sector.

Each of these threads has direct implications for the wholesale and refurbishment infrastructure layer. The traders and operators who can move stock efficiently across borders, with verified counterparties and predictable terms, are best positioned to capture the next wave of growth in the European circular market.

Why Berlin matters for this conversation

Berlin has become one of the most important cities in the European circular electronics conversation. The city hosts a significant cluster of refurbishment operators, several of the major B2B platforms, an active community of policy actors working on the EU agenda, and a growing share of the consumer-marketplace activity. IFA Circular Tech's location in Berlin reflects and reinforces this concentration, making the eight-day window one of the highest-density periods in the European circular calendar.

The wider arc

IFA Circular Tech is the most circular-focused of the seven conferences Aikon is engaging with through 2026. Together with the broader IFA exhibitor presence, GITEX Europe earlier in the summer, and the Mediterranean and Americas events, the calendar reflects how the wholesale electronics industry's circular conversation has matured from a niche thread to a central one.

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