EU Low Voltage Directive Compliance Hub
The LVD (Directive 2014/35/EU) covers electrical equipment designed for use with a voltage rating between 50-1000 V AC or 75-1500 V DC, unless an Annex II exclusion or a more specific product-law route applies.
Review this hub before design freeze, supplier onboarding, importer review, distributor listing, or first EU placement. Reopen the record after a material design, component, firmware, intended-use, installation, supplier, standards, or market-role change, and when complaints, test failures, corrective action, or an authority request challenge the existing conclusion.
Directive 2014/35/EU has applied since 20 April 2016. Start with the rated-voltage and product boundary, then identify the market event and actor: placing on the market is the first supply of the equipment in the EU, while making available is any commercial supply for distribution, consumption, or use, including supply free of charge. Connect the manufacturer, importer, distributor, or authorised-representative role to the Annex I safety evidence, release checks, retention duties, and post-market action it controls. The Directive and the Member State laws that transpose it govern the legal duties; Commission guidance helps interpretation but is not binding.
Key records for LVD product release
Track the directive text, Commission LVD guidance, harmonised-standard publications and withdrawals, technical-documentation updates, EU DoC updates, CE marking checks and market-surveillance evidence for each product model.
Choose the next LVD decision
New to the LVD? Establish the product boundary, rated voltage, exclusion status, and economic-operator role first. If those decisions are documented, jump to safety evidence, conformity release, standards maintenance, post-market controls, or a product-law comparison.
Start here: scope and routing
Decide whether the item is electrical equipment designed for the LVD voltage bands, whether an Annex II exclusion fits, and whether RED, machinery law, or another route changes the legal file.
Safety objectives and operator obligations
Translate Annex I hazards into product-specific controls, then assign manufacturer, importer, distributor, and authorised-representative duties without treating a supplier certificate as the finished-product safety case.
Conformity assessment and release evidence
Build the Annex III internal-production-control record: standards rationale, risk analysis, design and test evidence, technical documentation, EU declaration of conformity, CE marking, and production-release controls.
Standards maintenance and post-market controls
Keep the conformity basis current after release by monitoring OJEU citations and withdrawals, retention clocks, complaints, corrective action, authority requests, and Member State enforcement exposure.
Product-law boundaries and shared CE files
Separate LVD safety evidence from EMC, RED, RoHS, machinery, and horizontal market-surveillance obligations while keeping shared product identity and release records aligned.
Answer a focused LVD question
Use the FAQ for direct answers about thresholds, batteries, chargers, components, household appliances, importers, instructions, spare parts, and standards withdrawal.
Turn LVD scope and evidence into owned release work
This hub helps route LVD work by product model, voltage rating, intended use, standards set, operator role and EU market path. Assessment Autopilot can convert the release evidence into owned tasks; Research Copilot can support cited questions about scope, exclusions, standards, documentation and overlap with EMC, RED or Machinery.
- Start with the equipment boundary, voltage rating, intended use, installation context, EU market path and economic operator responsible for placing or making the product available.
- Use Assessment Autopilot to request the risk analysis, Annex I safety mapping, standards list, deviations rationale, test reports, instructions, traceability details, technical documentation, EU DoC and CE marking review.
- Use Research Copilot for cited questions about Annex II exclusions, harmonised-standard withdrawal, manufacturer versus importer duties, distributor checks, market-surveillance requests and product-law overlaps.
- Keep engineering, supplier, test-lab, quality, importer, distributor, release, corrective-action and authority-response records connected to the same equipment file.
