Hazardous Substance Regulation Updated

On 1st July the European Parliament and Council published Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment.

 The regulation, referred to as RoHS2 updates and replaces the original RoHS legislation (Directive 2002/95/EU published in 2003). EU member states are required to bring its provisions into national law by January 2013.

The new regulation will bring into force a number of requirements that will directly affect suppliers to the electronics/electrical products market. In particular it strengthens the requirements on the electronics supply chain to ensure compliance and widens the scope to eventually cover products with any level of electrical function.