Executive Summary and Discussion

Impact assessment of introduction of a general scope of the RoHS Directive – selected aspects

Introduction of a binding list
In the proposal for the recast of the current RoHS Directive (COM(2008) 809 final) the European Commission has introduced two new annexes describing the scope of the Directive. The first annex describes the broad product categories and the second, amendable by comitology, provides binding product lists within each product category. Equipment on the binding and exhaustive lists would be covered by the Directive unless the equipment is included in other equipment which is out of the scope of the Directive cf. Article 2(3)b of the proposal. All equipment which is not specifically mentioned in the list of equipment is considered to be outside the scope of the Directive.

One of the objectives of this study is to identify groups of EEE not included in the binding list of the Commission’s proposal. By the identification of the product groups it has been necessary to make some interpretations of the definition of EEE and some interpretations of which product groups are actually covered by the binding list. As regards the definition of EEE a very broad interpretation is applied here. All interpretations are subject to discussion and reflect the views of the authors only.

The consequences of introducing a binding list is that some products which in some Member States (here exemplified with Denmark) is considered to be within the scope of the national RoHS legislation will change status from being within the scope to being outside the scope. The study has identified 27 products groups that in Denmark would change status if the Commission’s proposal, including its exhaustive list, is adopted. The products are mainly falling within the categories large and small household appliances, electrical and electronic tools and toys and leisure and sports equipment. It has on the basis of the present data not been possible to estimate the consequences of the change in terms of potential increased use of lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, mercury, PBDE and PBB (hereafter referred to as the RoHS substances).

Introducing a general scope
Introduction of a general scope, where the RoHS Directive covers all EEE, may have quite wide-reaching consequences and there may be a need for general exclusions for some product groups. Areas not addressed in this study are 1) equipment which is necessary for the protection of the essential interests of the security of Member States; 2) large-scale stationary industrial tools; 3) transport equipment, 4) aerospace applications; 5) equipment designed for “fixed installations”; and 6) equipment which is not intended to be placed on the market as a single functional or commercial unit.

The study focus on other “finished products” as they are defined by the European Commission in the FAQ on the current RoHS and WEEE Directives.

By introducing a general scope and a broad definition of EEE, a number of product groups would change status from being outside the scope of the RoHS legislation to being inside the scope. The study has identified more than 50 product groups, considered by the authors to fall within the scope of the 10 categories in Annex I of the Commission’s proposal, which are not included in the binding list of the proposal’s Annex II.

Compared to the current situation, the actual number of product groups changing status depends on the interpretation of the scope of the RoHS legislation, which differs among Member States. The study has identified up to 26 product groups, considered by the authors to fall within the scope of the 10 categories in Annex I, which by the introduction of a general scope and a broad definition of EEE would change status from falling outside the scope of the Danish RoHS legislation to falling inside, unless they would specifically be exempted.

In addition, by the introduction of a general scope and a broad definition of EEE, 24 product groups considered to fall outside the existing 10 categories in Annex I of the Commission’s proposal would fall within the scope of the Directive. Some of the product groups like veterinary devices, other laboratory equipment and equipment for generation, transmission or conversion of electricity obviously fall within the current definition of EEE. Others, like furniture with EE components or clothing with EE components, are more in a grey area and may fall outside the scope if a more narrow definition of EEE is applied.

All in all, compared to the binding list of the Commission’s proposal, the number of identified product groups that might change status is 77. For a number of the product groups it has, however, not been possible to interpret whether they are actually fall within the product groups mentioned in the binding list in Annex II of the Commission’ proposal.

The potential reduced use of RoHS substances
The study has not been successful in meeting the objective of estimating the potential reduction of RoHS substances in the product groups concerned, by introducing a general scope. Due to the large number of diverse product groups, limited market data and limited information on the quantities of RoHS substances in the different product groups it has not been possible even to obtain a rough estimate of the quantities of RoHS substances. Establishing an estimate has further been complicated by the fact that for many grey area products many manufacturers have already phased out the RoHS substances to be on the safe side. For these product groups the introduction of a general scope would have very limited effect in reducing the RoHS substances, whereas the introduction of a binding list, by which these product groups would clearly fall outside the scope, may in fact lead to a reintroduction of the RoHS substances.

Relative assessment
For eight selected product categories (representing about 50 of the identified product groups) an assessment has been made of the consequences of introduction of a general scope. It has, however, not been intended to make a comprehensive assessment of all costs vs. benefits of including the different groups of EEE within the scope of the Directive. The Directive is based on the notion that the benefits of restricting the RoHS substances in the EEE within the scope at the least offset the socioeconomic costs. The present study therefore assess the EEE product groups outside the scope of the Commission’s proposal relative to product groups within the scope, in order to evaluate, at a screening level, whether the costs could be expected to be relatively high or/and the benefits relatively small. Further it is assessed whether the turnover of the product groups is significant.

Questions
In order to assess this, the study has tried to answer the following questions:

Is the content of RoHS substances significantly different from products within the scope?
Are particular difficulties in the replacement of RoHS substances anticipated?
Are the administrative costs vs. benefits expected to be significantly larger than for products within the scope?
Are the supply chains overlapping the supply chains for products within the scope?
Are the market volume and the quantities of RoHS substances significant?

As mentioned the quantities of RoHS substances have not been quantified, but it has been assessed whether the use of RoHS substances is (or has been) similar to product groups within the scope and the market volume is used to indicate whether the potential volumes of RoHS substances may be significant.

Assessment results
The results, summarized in Table 0.1, indicates that for most of the products the market volumes are significant. The overall turnover of European companies affected by RoHS is in the Commission’s Impact Assessment estimated at approximately 392 billion €. The total turnover of the equipment in Table 0.1 is thus in the range of a few percent of the total turnover of EEE. The product groups in Table 0.1 are deemed to represent the major part, in terms of market volume, of the identified equipment.

Apart from a few specific applications there is no indication that it should be particularly difficult to replace the RoHS substances in the assessed products.

For veterinary equipment there may be a need for an extended transition period as for medical equipment. Some of the previous studies have identified some specific applications of RoHS substances in alarms of which one is already exempted. Photovoltaic cells based on CdTe would need an exemption assessment. Photovoltaic panels based on CdTe cells is mainly used in fixed installation, but depending on the delineation between “fixed installations” and “finished products” some application of photovoltaic panels of this type may be regarded ”finished products”.

For most of the assessed product groups the use of RoHS substances has been or is similar to product groups within the scope and it is not expected that the administrative costs will be relatively large when compared to the benefits. For two of the assessed categories the administrative costs vs. benefits is assessed potentially to be high for some product groups. For the category toys with EE components, the toys with electrical motors (and often also electronic parts) certainly falls within the definition of EE and the content of RoHS substances is assessed to be similar to products within the scope. Many toys without motors (the talking, but not walking doll) are in a grey area and do not fall within the definition if a narrow interpretation of the definition is applied. In much of this toys the EE parts takes up a limited portion of the products and the administrative costs of including these products is deemed to be relatively high. The same is the situation with furniture where furniture with actuators (e.g. elevation tables and chairs with movable parts) seems to fall within the definition of EEE, whereas cupboards with light are in a grey area and the administrative costs are assessed to be relatively high. A number of similar grey area product groups have been identified, but not assessed further. These include clothing and footwear with EE components, fun and joke equipment and ornaments with EE components, electric toilets and shower heads and mirrors with light.

Clearer definition of EEE if a general scope is introduced
The results indicate that for the finished products analysed in this study, if a general scope is introduced, a clearer definition of EEE may be needed. It may for some product groups be considered to exclude product groups with a very limited content of RoHS substances, but potentially many impacted market actors (e.g. some toys), from the scope of the Directive by introducing a clearer definition of EEE.

Click here to see: Table 0.1 Overall assessment results for selected product categories