European Union Publishes Directive on Electrical and Electronic Equipment

European Union Publishes Directive on Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Suppliers of electronics to the European Union should be aware of a revised directive published by the European Parliament, Directive 2011/65/EU (also known as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) Directive). This will prohibit the sale of electrical and electronic equipment (called EEE in the directive), if the equipment contains certain hazardous chemicals. While this directive must first be transposed into the regulations of the EU member states to become effective, suppliers of EEE should start preparing to comply.

Categories of goods covered by the directive include:

• Large household appliances.
• Small household appliances.
• IT and telecommunications equipment.
• Consumer equipment.
• Lighting equipment.
• Electrical and electronic tools.
• Toys, leisure and sports equipment.
• Medical devices.
• Monitoring and control instruments including industrial monitoring and control instruments.
• Automatic dispensers.
• Other EEE not covered by any of the categories above

Prohibited chemicals, and their cutoff levels, are:

• Lead (0.1 %)
• Mercury (0.1 %)
• Cadmium (0.01 %)
• Hexavalent chromium (0.1 %)
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) (0.1 %)
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) (0.1 %)

Text of the Directive may be found at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:174:0088:0110:EN:PDF. If you have any further questions, please contact ICC at 1-888-442-9628 (USA) or 1-888-977-4834 (Canada).