EU RoHS Directive deadlines and compliance calendar

Directive 2011/65/EU was adopted on 8 June 2011 and entered into force on 21 July 2011. Those are legal-history dates. Article 4(3) sets the product-facing dates and applies the restriction to EEE placed on the market from the date assigned to its group.

The phase-in dates are 22 July 2014 for medical devices and monitoring and control instruments, 22 July 2016 for in vitro diagnostic medical devices, 22 July 2017 for industrial monitoring and control instruments, and 22 July 2019 for other EEE that had been outside Directive 2002/95/EC. Directive (EU) 2017/2102 required Member States to transpose its amendments by 12 June 2019, but that national transposition date is not a substitute for the product's Article 4 date.

The RoHS calendar must track substance coverage as well as product scope. Annex II sets maximum concentration values by weight in homogeneous materials for lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). Cadmium has a 0.01% limit; the other listed substances have 0.1% limits.

Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2015/863 added DEHP, BBP, DBP, and DIBP to Annex II. Member States had to apply their transposing provisions from 22 July 2019. The four restrictions apply to medical devices, including in vitro medical devices, and monitoring and control instruments, including industrial instruments, from 22 July 2021.

The phthalate restrictions do not apply to specified cables and spare parts used to repair, reuse, update, or upgrade EEE placed on the market before the applicable 22 July 2019 or 22 July 2021 date. DEHP, BBP, and DBP in toys remain governed by the referenced REACH restriction rather than duplicated by this RoHS restriction. Record these branches instead of applying the finished-product date to every replacement part.

RoHS exemptions are application-specific, temporary, and often category-specific. The calendar therefore needs one controlled row for every Annex III or Annex IV exemption used by a product. A renewal application must be made no later than 18 months before expiry. If it is submitted in time, the existing exemption remains valid until the Commission decides.

For exemptions listed in Annex III on 21 July 2011, Article 5 set maximum initial periods unless a shorter period was stated: five years from 21 July 2011 for categories 1 to 7 and 10, seven years from the relevant Article 4(3) date for categories 8 and 9, and five years from 22 July 2019 for category 11. The corresponding maximum for Annex IV exemptions listed on 21 July 2011 was seven years from the relevant Article 4(3) date. These framework periods do not establish the current status of a particular exemption; later delegated directives can renew, narrow, replace, or expire individual entries.

Article 4 contains two different spare-part routes. Article 4(4) covers specified cables and spare parts used for repair, reuse, functionality updates, or capacity upgrades of older EEE: pre-1 July 2006 EEE; pre-22 July 2014 medical devices and monitoring and control instruments; pre-22 July 2016 in vitro diagnostic medical devices; pre-22 July 2017 industrial monitoring and control instruments; and pre-22 July 2019 formerly out-of-scope EEE. It also covers, for the substance concerned, EEE placed on the market while a relied-on exemption was valid.

Article 4(5) is a separate route for reused spare parts recovered from older equipment. Reuse must occur in an auditable closed-loop business-to-business return system and be notified to the consumer. The recovered part must both come from qualifying older EEE and be used in EEE placed on the market before the stated cutoff: 1 July 2016, 22 July 2024, 22 July 2026, 22 July 2027, or 22 July 2029, depending on the source equipment. These are conditions on the recipient EEE's placement date, not general shelf-life dates for parts.

A RoHS calendar should include evidence dates, not only legal-effect dates. Manufacturers must draw up technical documentation, use the internal production control procedure, issue an EU Declaration of Conformity, affix CE marking before placing EEE on the market, and keep the technical documentation and EU Declaration of Conformity for 10 years after the EEE has been placed on the market.

Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/659 published EN IEC 63000:2018 as the harmonised standard for RoHS technical documentation and withdrew the EN 50581:2012 reference from the Official Journal on 18 November 2021. Use of a harmonised standard is voluntary, but assessment under its cited reference gives a presumption of conformity for the RoHS requirements it covers. A legacy file citing EN 50581 therefore needs a reasoned review, not an automatic conclusion that the product became non-compliant on the withdrawal date.

Each row should identify the trigger, affected product, owner, evidence, decision, and next review. Historical dates remain useful for classifying legacy EEE, while current controls depend on facts such as a new placement on the market, an exemption application or decision, a supplier change, or the end of a retention period.

Do not treat document creation as the placement date. Under RoHS, the placement date attaches to the first making available of an individual EEE on the Union market. Keep the transaction or release evidence that supports that date, then calculate the manufacturer's 10-year technical-documentation and EU-declaration retention period from it.