Jurisdiction: UK
Commencement: 12th June 2019
Amends: The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012
Mini Summary
These Regulations restrict the use of hazardous substances including some heavy metals and certain flame retardants in a number of categories of electrical and electronic equipment, requiring compliant products to be CE marked. They place obligation on economic operators to meet certain requirements and provide the Secretary of State with powers for the enforcement of those obligations.
Amendment
These Regulations implement Directive 2017/2102/EU amending Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.
The update of the Directive (Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment) introduced an open scope method of categorisation of ‘Electronic and Electrical Equipment’ (EEE), which will come into force from 22nd July 2019. This change now brings the majority of electrical equipment within the scope of the Regulations from 22nd July 2019. However, this will have the unintended consequence of impacting on the sale of second hand and refurbished EEE, as refurbished or second hand EEE wouldn’t be able to be resold if it is not compliant with these Regulations. This would prevent the ability to extend the lifetime of the EEE, which would be both economically and environmentally undesirable.
Therefore, this amendment extends the exclusion to include the:
- second hand sale of electrical equipment;
- use of cables or spare parts for the repair, the reuse, the updating of functionalities or upgrading of capacity; and
- use of reused spare parts.
This means that electrical equipment, spare parts, and cables that were previously compliant with the Regulations prior to 22nd July 2019 will still be able to be resold or used for the repair, upgrading, or updating of equipment.
Pipe organs (musical instrument) are also excluded as there had previously been an inadvertent ban on new pipe organs being sold within the EU; the amount of lead required to produce the pipes preventing compliance.
It is also clarified that cord connected non-road mobile machinery is to be treated the same as non-road mobile machinery powered by a battery or on board power supply, which is already exempt, e.g. cord powered and battery powered professional cleaning machines.