EEE products in category 11 (Other EEE) come into scope of EU RoHS and will need to meet all ten substance restrictions (including the phthalates) and other obligations specified in the EU RoHS Directive starting July 22, 2019.
For assistance with RoHS Compliance, contact ECD Compliance.
Ontario has proposed a new WEEE regulation that would make producers responsible for end of life collection and recycling. This would replace the current Ontario WEEE regulation that requires consumers to pay an eco fee at the time of purchasing a product. If adopted the Ontario regulation will be one of the most comprehensive WEEE regulations among all states and provinces in North America.
The definition of EEE is similar to that of EU WEEE and RoHS, applying to products that are “designed for use with an electric current and a voltage rating not exceeding 1000 volts for alternating current and 1500 volts for direct current”. For purposes of WEEE responsibilities, EEE products are grouped into four categories:
Responsibilities of the producer include a free collection network for end of life products, achieving resource recovery targets, promotion and education to increase consumer awareness, and to register, report and keep records.
The proposed regulation specifies requirements that would significantly increase the number of collection sites.
Details on collection requirements are provided in the proposed regulation[1].
[1] Proposed Ontario WEEE regulation, https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-0048
China has clarified the requirements for demonstrating conformity to China RoHS 2 substance restrictions. The restrictions came into effect on March 15, 2019 and the new conformity requirements will be enforced as of November 1, 2019.
Background
In March 2018, the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published the “1st Compliance Management Catalogue of Electric Appliances and Electronic Products for Restriction Use Hazardous Substances” and “Applications Exempted from the Restriction in Product Compliance Management Catalogue” for China RoHS 2. The substance restrictions were specified as coming into effect on March 15, 2019. However, the compliance requirements were noticeably missing, creating confusion about what manufacturers needed to do by March 2019.
Conformity Assessment System going Forward
The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation published the Implementation Measures on a Conformity Assessment System for the Restricted Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products on 16 May 2019:
Electrical and electronic products which are listed in the RoHS 2 Catalogue and manufactured or imported after 1 November 2019 must comply with the new conformity assessment requirements. This includes:
Companies may choose one of two methods to complete the conformity assessment:
A compliance label is attached to the product based on which conformity method is used. Information related to conformity assessment will be published by the manufacturer on the information platform set up by MIIT and the State Administration of Market Regulation
Additional Information on the Self-Declaration Approach
The procedure and requirements for self declaration are specified in Annex 2 of the Notice. They leverage the China Standard GB/T 36560 2018 (China national adoption of IEC 63000 on technical documentation with respect to the restriction of hazardous substances). Manufacturers or their authorized representative must also submit a supplier declaration of conformity (SDoC).
Overall, the China RoHS self declaration is similar to the EU RoHS conformity requirements (i.e. EU DoC, CE Mark, and technical documentation file). However, unlike EU RoHS, the SDoC and technical documentation file must be uploaded into a repository (referred to as the “public service platform”) within 30 days of placing the product on the China market.
Enforcement
The Notice (section 5.3) states that non-conformity of products will be made public.
Further Information
The conformity assessment Notice was jointly published by the China SAMR (State Administration of Market Regulations of P. R.C.) and MIIT (Ministry of Industry &Information Technology) as SAMR MIIT Notice No.23 2019.
The European CEN standards organization (EU version of ISO) has approved a new Technical Committee (TC462) on regulated chemicals in products.
Title: CEN/TC 462 ‘Regulated Chemicals in Products’
TC 462 was approved in March 2019. However, there concerns about conflicts with other International standards that are in use or under development. The French National Body (AFNOR) will be the secretariat of the new TC.
The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) developed an updated specification on the upcoming SVHC in articles reporting database and circulated to a very limited set of stakeholders. The document, titled “Detailed information requirements for the database on articles containing Candidate List substances under the Waste Framework Directive” is the next step in ECHA developing the database. A very short 2 weeks were provided for comments in May 2019.
ECHA has retained most of the data fields that were in their original proposal, but many are now proposed as optional instead of mandatory. Industry pushed back on the original proposal arguing that the extensive data reporting was (1) not supported by requirements in the REACH regulation and the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) and (2) impractical to obtain for complex products with multi-level BOMs. ECHA responded that the requirements specified in the regulations justify the data fields but have never-the-less acquiesced by making many of the fields optional.
However, the requirement to report the first articles containing SVHCs is retained in the proposal. Furthermore, the database will require the manufacturers to report the “article category name and code” – the ‘code’ is described as being the Combined Nomenclature (CN) code that is used for customs purposes. CN codes are based on the International Harmonized System (HS) and tend to be a bit of a mystery to everyone except import/export experts. Most manufacturers know the CN code for their products but may not know the CN/HS codes for articles buried deep in the BOM of a complex product.
To demonstrate the requirement, ECHA provides an example database submission for an imported car. The example involves reporting a car as a complex object; that contains an engine as a complex object; and an O-ring containing an SVHC that is an article within the engine. In the example, the O-ring is identified with article code “4008 21 90: [4008: Plates, sheets, strip, rods and profile shapes, of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber; – Of non-cellular rubber;] — Other”
Impact on EEE Manufacturers
Between the combination of (1) the European Court of Justice ruling that SVHC concentration is based on when it is first applied to an article and (2) the metal lead was added to the Candidate List, most complex EEE products are likely to contain at least one SVHC above the 0.1% threshold and possibly several SVHCs. Therefore, the reporting requirements for the database, especially information about first articles containing an SVHC will be challenging for many EEE manufacturers. The information goes beyond the what OEMs typically collect from their suppliers.
ECD Compliance can assist manufacturers and solution providers to stay up to date on emerging developments on the database and to prepare supply chain management operations and IT systems for the SVHC in article reporting requirements.
The European Implementing Measure for compute servers and data storage products was published in the EU Official Journal[1] as COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2019/424 on March 18, 2019. The scope, requirements and implementation dates are the same as indicated in our November 2018 ECD report.
The new regulation imposes requirements on:
ECHA has submitted proposals to restrict:
The proposed siloxane restriction (D4, D5, and D6) has raised concerns from European industry groups. D4, D5, and D6 are used in the production of silicone polymer sealants and may therefore be present as impurities. They argue that the restriction will have “unintended consequences” for the environment given that “the use of silicone polymers reduces the carbon footprint of countless other sectors.” They describe the use of the siloxanes as an important area for innovation of silicone polymers.
ECHA is accepting comments on the proposal until 20 September 2019.
Impact on EEE Manufacturers
Given that silicone polymers are commonly used in the manufacturing of EEE, the potential presence of D4, D5, and D6 should be reviewed by EEE manufacturers.
Note: Some manufacturers may use silicone polymers as a shop floor material and therefore it may not necessarily show up on the product’s bill of materials.
The EU Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway recently completed a joint enforcement project on give-away products such as pens, electronic products, toys, bags, and other gadgets. These items are typically imprinted with a company name/logo for advertising. The Norwegian Environment Agency has produced a brief summary of the results[1].
The enforcement program involved 250 products from over 100 companies. The Chemical agencies were looking for regulated substances in the product and for non-compliant marketing (e.g. CE marking).
Of the EE products, 12% were non-compliance due to presence of restricted chemicals and 25% were non-compliant due to missing CE marking.
[1] Nordic Enforcement Summary, https://mst.dk/media/172187/2019_02_18-nordic-enforcement-of-give-away-products-press-release.pdf
Two European CEN/CENELEC standards being develop as part of the European Commission mandate (M/543) to enable the circular economy were published on March 1, 2019. The two standards being developed in WG6:
A CEN/CENELEC news brief[2] provides the following description of the standards:
EN 45558:2019 distinguishes between regulated and non-regulated CRMs and assist users (manufacturers and their suppliers) to make CRM declarations, giving the supply chain some level of certainty regarding what to report, how to report and a standardized mechanism to communicate the data throughout the supply chain. To achieve this, EN 45558 builds upon EN IEC 62474 standard on material declaration.
…
EN 45559 establishes a general method, including rules and formats, for the provision of information related to the material efficiency aspects of energy-related products.
Several other circular economy standards are still under development.
CRM Communication and Regulations
The European CRM list includes 27 entries as of March 2019. The European Commission plans to impose regulatory requirements for specific CRMs on specific products; these may be included in ecodesign implementing measures.
The EN 45558:2019 standard on CRMs differentiates between regulated CRMs and non-regulated CRMS. For regulated CRMs the standard requires users to provide the CRM information in the IEC 62474 material declaration format. The CRM standard recommends that IEC 62474 is also used when non-regulated CRMs are reported. To accommodate CRM reporting, the IEC 62474:2018 is being updated by an Amendment 1 to clarify the use of alternate DSLs such as CRM lists.
When manufacturers of EEE products are required to report CRMs in the EU (such as in the upcoming ecodesign IMs), the CRMs may be added to the IEC 62474 DSL.
Impact on EEE Manufacturers
The specific CRM requirements will depend on the product type. Manufacturers should track EU regulations – especially ecodesign implementing measures – that could impose CRM reporting obligations on their products. Once a CRM reporting is identified, manufacturers will need to start requesting the information from suppliers – there will typically be at least a one-year transition period after the regulation is published. Once the CRM is added to the IEC 62474 DSL, this DSL may be used to request information.
[2] CEN/CENELEC news brief, https://www.cencenelec.eu/News/Brief_News/Pages/TN-2019-017.aspx
China has submitted comments in response to the EU’s WTO TBT posting of new ecodesign requirements for external power supplies (EPS) (November 2018 ECD Report). The Chinese comments request:
Impact on EEE Manufacturers
The regulation will impact most product manufacturers that use external power supplies. The outcome of China’s question on the definition of “household and office equipment” could have an impact on whether your EPS are in scope or not.
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