The European Union Publishes Guide to Radio Equipment Directive

The European Union (EU) released the Guide to the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU (RED), which can be considered as a manual for all parties affected by the directive. It explains and clarifies some key points that help to use the Directive in a right way.

The Guide is based on the RED Directive and on the “Blue Guide” but does not duplicate the items from the “Blue Guide”. You can find links to the applicable articles of “the Blue Guide” in the text of the Guide to RED. Thus, this Guide should be read in conjunction with “the Blue Guide” .

The Guide contains 11 sections and 2 annexes:

1. Scope

2. Obligations of the economic operators

3. Essential requirements

4. Interface regulations & specifications

5. Harmonised Standards

6. Notified bodies

7. Market surveillance and enforcement

8. Delegated Acts, Implementing Acts and Commission Decisions

9. Other applicable or related EU legislation

10. Comparison R&TTED – RED

11. Transitional provisions for products falling under the scope of the RED

ANNEX 1 — Organisations and committees mentioned in this document

ANNEX 2 — Acronyms and abbreviations

Let's sum up the main points:

In the first section, you can find the detailed explanation of radio equipment and what products are excluded from the scope of the Directive. Some useful examples are also introduced to illustrate why the product is in the scope or out of the scope of the Directive.

The second section defines the ‘economic operators’ and describes the responsibilities of each operator. Also it is mentioned that the main responsibility is put on the manufacturer.

Acording to the essential requirements pointed out in Article 3 of the RED, the conformity shall be demonstrated by using:

• Modula A (Annex II of the RED),

• Module B+C (Annex III of the RED)

or

• Module H (Annex IV of the RED).

The manufacturer is free to choose whether to use harmonised standards or not. However, when he chooses not to use the applicable harmonised standards or to use them partially or when there are no harmonised standards, Module B+C or Module H should be used. These Modules require involving of a notify body. Otherwise, Module A can be used (a notified body is not involved).

Note that if the manufacturer applied a superseded harmonised standard which no longer provides presumption of conformity and do not want to apply the new harmonised standard, he needs to involve a notified body in order to continue placing the radio equipment on the market.

The detailed information on the revision of harmonised standards is given in the Chapter 4.1.2.6 of the Blue Guide.

The conformity assessment procedures are illustrated below:

Please notice, the Guide is reviewing periodically to be kept up to date.

The full text of the Guide you can find here.

The information has been prepared by the GMA Consult Group team.

GMA Consult Group provides a full cycle of international type approval and global market access services for IT, Telecom and industrial electrical products in all countries throughout the world. With proven expertise in worldwide regulations, compliance, certification, and conformity assessment, GMA Consult Group can help your company speed up the access to any market with almost zero efforts from your side.

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