Legislative Decree No. 49/2014, from 15 August 2018, has provided for an extension of regulations which require producers, importers and those who sell electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) under their own brand to organise and finance the waste (WEEE) collection and recovery system deriving from products placed on the market.

This extended scope covers equipment for which no specific exclusion (open scope) is envisaged.

Contact us to check if the products of your company fall within the scope of the Regulation and to get information on the ANIE Guidelines.

DEFINITION OF EEE, Electrical and electronic equipment:

equipment which is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields to work properly and equipment for the generation, transfer and measurement of currents and fields and designed to be used with a voltage not exceeding 1000 volts for alternating current and 1500 volts for direct current.

Read our in-depth analysis of the Open Scope.

At the end of the transition period, from 15 August 2018, the Directive applies to all EEE, as “All EEE is classified as categories of Annex III” and listed in a non-exhaustive way in Annex 4. The products will be classified based on size criteria rather than product category.

The list of new categories is indicated in Annex III of the Directive, below:

1. Temperature exchange equipment;
2. Monitors and equipment with displays exceeding 100 cm2;
3. Lamps;
4. Large equipment with at least one external size of more than 50 cm;
5. Small equipment with no external size greater than 50 cm;
6. Small IT and telecommunications equipment with no external sizes greater than 50 cm.

Not all EEE will fall within the scope, since the set of exclusions provided for by the Directive and by Legislative Decree No. 49/2014 must be safeguarded.

The Directive and Legislative Decree No. 49/2014 apply only to finished products and NOT to components, unless the components have an independent function.

1. Equipment necessary for the protection of the essential interests of the security of Member States, including weapons, munitions and war material, and intended for military purposes;
2. Equipment which is specifically designed and installed as part of another type of equipment, which is excluded from this directive scope and which can fulfil its function only if it is part of that equipment;
3. Incandescent bulbs;
4. Equipment intended to be sent into space;
5. Large fixed industrial tools;
6. Large fixed installations, except for equipment which is not specifically designed and installed to be part of those installations;
7. Means of transport of persons or goods, excluding non-approved two-wheeled electric vehicles;
8. Non-road mobile machinery for professional use;
9. Equipment specially designed for research and development purposes, available only for business-to-business relations;
10. Medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices, if these are suspected to be infected before the end of their life cycle, and active implantable medical devices.