Policy Issue

Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive

Policy Isssue

Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive

Home Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive

Basic information

State of play

The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive currently restricts the use of ten substances: lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). All products with an electrical and electronic component, unless specifically excluded, have to comply with these restrictions.

The public consultation on the RoHS review was open until 16 June 2022. The purpose was to collect information and views from stakeholders on how the RoHS Directive could be improved in order to maintain its relevance and increase its efficiency. The evaluation of the Directive flagged the following as potential areas for improvement:

The exemption process
The process of reviewing the list of restricted substances
The alignment of RoHS with other EU legislative frameworks (e.g. REACH, ESPR, etc.)

The revision of RoHS was scheduled for Q4 2022, but it was postponed. The RoHS revision is likely to be published after the completion of the REACH revision to ensure consistency and coherence between RoHS and REACH. This also means that RoHS will not be integrated into REACH.

16 February 2022

Call for evidence on RoHS review open till 14 March

The European Commission has opened the call for evidence on the review of the RoHS Directive, which limits the use of certain harmful substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Feedback can be submitted until 14 March 2022....

1 min read

Publications

Legislation

This section contains an all-encompassing collection of all EU legislation of relevance for this policy issue in one place. This not only covers regulatory texts, but also FAQ documents, guidelines, preparatory studies, impact assessments, review studies, harmonised standards, and much more. The database contains most recent publications, but also allows you to go back in time.

All documents in this section are freely accessible for all members of the Eurovent network that are logged in to the Extranet. If you are not logged in, log in or register for the Eurovent Extranet to download the documents.