Electrical & Electronic Equipment Regulations

Your business is affected if it:

• Imports EEE and places it onto the UK market
• Manufactures EEE and places it onto the UK market
• Sells own brand EEE products
• Sells or supply (including free of charge) EEE to household or business consumers

Visit our WEEE compliance web page for further information and to find out how we can help your business to comply.

Links to the Regulations

• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Charges) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in
  Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2014
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2015
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2018
• Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

(The link to the Directive directs you to the page on Eur Lex; however, to ensure that you fulfil all requirements please ensure you also take account of the “Relationship between documents” section and in particular the “Amended by” sub-section which can be found by ensuring you are using the “Document information” tab (at the top of the page) and scrolling down.)

A producer which places electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) onto the market in an EU Member State must comply with the regulations under the Directive in that country.

A producer, which is situated in an EU Member State other than the UK, that places over 5 tonnes of EEE onto the market in the UK must appoint an authorised representative or register with a compliance scheme, such as Valpak, in the UK to fulfil their obligations.

An overseas producer that places under 5 tonnes of EEE onto the market in the UK must appoint an authorised representative (AR) but can then register via the AR directly with the Environment Agency to fulfil their obligations.

Visit our Authorised Representative web page for more information.

Organisations will be affected by the RoHS Regulations if they do the following:

• Manufacture electrical and electronic equipment
• Import electrical and electronic equipment
• Distribute electrical and electronic equipment

Visit our RoHS compliance web page for further information and to find out how we can help your business to comply.

Links to the Regulations

• The Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in
  Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2014
• Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic
  equipment

(The link to the Directive directs you to the page on Eur Lex, however to ensure that you fulfil all requirements
please ensure you also take account of the “Relationship between documents” section and in particular the
“Amended by” sub-section which can be found by ensuring you are using the “Document information” tab (at the
top of the page) and scrolling down.)

The restricted substances and the agreed limits are:

• Lead (0.1% by weight)
• Cadmium (0.01% by weight)
• Mercury (0.1% by weight)
• Hexavalent chromium (0.1% by weight)
• Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) (0.1% by weight)
• Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) (0.1% by weight)

Please note that 4 phthalates were added to the restricted substances from 22 July 2019 for all EEE and from
2021 for medical devices/ monitoring and control instruments these include:

• bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) (0.1% by weight)
• butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) (0.1% by weight)
• dibutyl phthalate (DBP) (0.1% by weight)
• diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP) (0.1% by weight)