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Court
Annuls RoHS
Exemption for DecaBDE
DecaBDE annullment
Directive
2002/95/EC - RoHS
The European Court of
Justice (ECJ) has annulled the RoHS exemption
for decaBDE in a decision issued April 1, 2008. Use of decaBDE will be
prohibited beginning July 1, 2008.
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Court findings: |
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Per Article
5(1)(b), exemptions are granted only when substitutions are
technically or scientifically impracticable or create
negative health, safety or environmental impacts, but the
Commission failed to consider possible
substitutions for decaBDE (even though many producers
have stopped using it). |
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Per Article
4(2) and the Annex, exemptions are
granted to specific product
applications, but the exemption for "decaBDE in
polymeric applications" is so broad as to be a blanket exemption
for the substance. |
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The title of
Article 5: Adaptation to scientific and technical progress
means that amendments are taken on
knowledge developed after the adoption of the
directive in 2002, but the exemption was based upon an
evaluation of decaBDE completed in 2002. |
Directive
2003/11/EC - penta/octaBDE
Case
C-14/06 - European Parliament
Case
T-5/06 - Denmark
Elfnet
press release
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History of the
decaBDE exemption: |
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In 2002,
Article 4(1) of the RoHS directive prohibited the use of
polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) in electrical and
electronic equipment effective July 1, 2006, but point 10 in the
Annex required that decaBDE be evaluated for exemption. |
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In 2003, a
separate directive prohibited the use of
pentaBDE and octaBDE (widely believed to be the least stable forms of
PBDE) effective August 15, 2004, almost two
years earlier than RoHS. |
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In
October 2005, the
European Commission approved an exemption for decaBDE in spite of substantial opposition
from the European
Parliament; the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food
Safety; the EC's own Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental
Risks (SCHER); and the RoHS Technical Adaptation Committee (TAC). |
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In
January 2006, the European Parliament and the Kingdom of Denmark filed
separate legal challenges to the exemption of decaBDE in the European Court of Justice. |
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In July 2006, the
Commission's legal services ruled that
nonaBDE impurities
normally found in commercial decaBDE are not exempt and must
comply with the substance ban, effectively banning the use of decaBDE despite its official exemption. |
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In April 2008,
the Court of Justice
annulled the exemption for decaBDE, effective July 1, 2008. |
This summary is
intended to give you an easy-to-understand overview and does not
constitute legal advice. The actual standard in the original language
should be reviewed and used for all business, legal, and product
compliance purposes.
If you need assistance in
preparing your company to meet the requirements of RoHS and other
regulatory requirements, please
email
or call us at 972-679-8996.
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Technical Consulting
PO Box 867705, Plano, Texas 75086 |
