EU Directive · RoHS
RoHS Directive
Directive 2011/65/EU
The RoHS Directive restricts the use of specified hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment placed on the EU market, and is a prerequisite for CE marking of in-scope products.
What it covers
Electrical and electronic equipment — restricts hazardous substances such as lead, mercury and cadmium.
How it applies to your product
RoHS compliance is a substance-restriction exercise: the manufacturer shows, usually through supplier declarations and the technical file, that each homogeneous material stays under the limits for lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, the brominated flame retardants and the restricted phthalates. It is a precondition for CE marking of in-scope electronics.
Authoritative source
Always confirm against the primary text on EUR-Lex — the official EU legal database.
Read Directive 2011/65/EU on EUR-Lex ↗See also the RoHS entry in the glossary.
Guides on RoHS
From the Library
guide
CE marking for industrial sensors and gateways
EMC, LVD, RED, RoHS, ATEX, Machinery Regulation and CRA stack for industrial sensors, gateways and edge devices placed on the EU market.
guide
CE marking for IoT consumer products — end-to-end
End-to-end CE marking process for consumer IoT — RED, EMC, LVD, RoHS, CRA (from 11 December 2027), and GPSR — sequenced from scope to vulnerability handling.
reference
RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU — Annex II restricted substances
Annex II of RoHS 2 lists 10 restricted substances with maximum concentration values. The 2015 phthalate amendment, exemptions, and CE marking explained.
tutorial
Sample Declaration of Conformity — annotated walkthrough with template
Full annotated sample EU Declaration of Conformity for a connected IoT product, citing CRA, RED, LVD, EMC, RoHS — with explanation of each of the nine elements.
reference
Top 10 CE marking mistakes that trigger product withdrawal
Ten CE marking mistakes seen most often in market surveillance enforcement — each grounded in the specific EU regulation that defines the violation.
guide
CE Marking 101 — the complete EU guide for hardware manufacturers
End-to-end CE marking guide for 2026: which products need it, the 24 directives behind it, the conformity assessment process, common mistakes, and penalties.
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