If you have considered importing products into the EU over the past decade or so, you might have heard of terms like “REACH” and “RoHS”. But, in spite of the prevalence of these terms, the specific needs of these regulations are still a mystery to most of the importers. Who needs to comply with which regulation? What are importers responsible for under REACH vs. RoHS? And what are the potential consequence of noncompliance?

It does not help that the regulations are changing continually. New compliance requirements under RoHS 3 and RoHS 2 will be implemented in July 2019 and it will also impact all producers regulated under this standard. New restricted substances, marking needs and regulated product types have been carefully added to the directive.

In addition to this, recently the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced it’ll quadruple the number of REACH compliance checks it conducts, which makes the REACH compliance and testing more crucial than ever.

So what needs do you need to comply with? Let us take a quick look at each of these standards in detail so that you can make sure all your products are fully compliant for the market of the EU. 

What is RoHS?

The EU’s Restriction on various Hazardous Materials (RoHS) Directive regulates the use of different types of chemical substances in goods. The primary aim of the Directives of RoHS is to reduce the toxicity volume of electrical waste. In addition to this, RoHS is closely related to the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive), which sets recycling targets for various electrical goods.     

Unlike the REACH regulations that apply to a plethora of products, RoHS needs only apply to different types of electrical products. But, this category still comprises a wide array of electrical products, cables, equipment, and electrical components.

Various products subject to RoHS comprise:

• Home appliances
• Consumer electronics
• IT & telecommunications equipment
• Small household appliances
• Lighting fixtures
• Electrical & electronic tools (except large industrial tools, stationary)
• Electric sports & leisure equipment, electric toys
• Medical devices (except all infected and implanted products)
• Control and Monitoring instruments
• Automatic output devices
• Other electronic and electrical equipment

RoHS is the EU “directive”, and not a regulation like REACH. In the EU directive a legislative act that sets a goal that all the EU countries must be achieved. But, each and every country must devise its own laws and regulations on how to reach the goal. While various countries might differ in their enforcement and implementation of RoHS, the restricted substances and their limits are consistent largely across the EU. The original Directive of RoHS, Directive 2002/95/ EC, has undergone about two revisions since its foundation in the year 2002:

Various hazardous substances restricted under RoHS:

The Directive of RoHS restricts the use of 6 hazardous RoHS vs REACH substances in various electrical products that include:

• Cadmium (Cd): < 100 ppm
• Hexavalent Chromium: (Cr VI) < 1000 ppm
• Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB): < 1000 ppm
• Lead (Pb): < 1000 ppm
• Mercury (Hg): < 1000 ppm
• Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE): <1000 ppm

RoHS 2 and RoHS 3 updates

The original Directive of RoHS restricts the use of the 6 hazardous goods above. Its latest replacement, RoHS 2, extended the list of different electrical products that RoHS covers. In addition to this, RoHS 2 makes RoHS compliance a need for CE marking and requires electronic, electrical, and electromechanical (EEE) manufacturers in order to affix a CE mark in order to their finished products to show compliance. While doing so, the maker declares that the product caters to all the legal needs for sale throughout the European Economic Area (EEA).

The latest amendment, also called “RoHS 3”, has been implemented on July 22, 2019, and it has added four new hazardous substances to this list which are:

• Bis (2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP): < 1000 ppm
• Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP): < 1000 ppm
• Dibutyl phthalate (DBP): < 1000 ppm
• Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP): < 1000 ppm

Let’s Wrap Up:

I hope you are able to get a clear idea of “REACH” and “RoHS”. If you still need any clarification, you can contact a product inspection company in Asia that help you in getting to know about different terms of inspections.