[co-author: Vera Wichers]

The new EU Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EC (“RED”) applies to all radio equipment, such as products with mobile communication, Bluetooth or WiFi. It is replacing the former EU Directive on Radio and Telecommunication Terminal Equipment 1999/5/EC (“R&TTE Directive”).

RED has been applicable since 13 June 2016 but provided a one-year transitional period, during which companies were allowed to continue placing their radio equipment products on that market, provided they were compliant with either RED or the R&TTE Directive. This transitional period ended on 12 June 2017. Any radio equipment brought to the market from 13 June 2017 onwards must be RED compliant.

A means of demonstrating compliance with the relevant requirements of RED is through reliance on harmonised standards developed by European standardisation organisations and published in the Official Journal of the European Commission. However, some of the necessary new harmonised standards needed for RED are behind schedule or have not been published yet. Hence, companies need to handle this issue carefully. In order to help prepare you, answers can be derived by answering the following questions:

• Have you already updated your internal conformity assessment procedure as well as your CE declarations of conformity according to RED?
• How are you handling the delay or lack of certain harmonised standards in terms of demonstrating RED-compliance?
• What is your strategy to mitigate potential risks for both the company and its decision makers?