EdLaw
WEEE Directive (Directive 2012/19/EU)
The end-of-life directive for electrical and electronic equipment, published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2012 (OJ L 197, 24.7.2012, p. 38), in force since 13 August 2012, transposition due by 14 February 2014 (Art. 24, not extracted; see Sources). This folder reproduces the consolidated text 02012L0019-20240408 (as amended by Directives (EU) 2018/849 and 2024/884). Unlike the CE instruments, WEEE is not about the product's design conformity but about the producer's per-Member-State obligations: register, finance collection and treatment, mark the product, and inform users.
"Producer" is defined by selling posture, not manufacturing: it includes anyone who "sells EEE by means of distance communication directly to private households or to users other than private households in a Member State, and is established in another Member State or in a third country" (Art. 3(1)(f)) — so cross-border direct sales create producer obligations in the buyer's Member State.
Applicability to EdTech
- Selling hardware into a Member State makes you a producer there (Art. 3(1)(f)) — registration in that state's producer register (Art. 16), financing of WEEE management (Art. 12 households, Art. 13 non-household — school equipment is typically assessed under Art. 13, subject to the dual-use rule in Art. 3(1)(h)), and per-state reporting.
- Distance sellers may appoint an authorised representative in the target Member State instead of establishing there (Art. 17).
- The crossed-out wheeled bin marking is mandatory: producers must "appropriately mark – preferably in accordance with the European standard EN 50419:2022 – EEE placed on the market with the symbol shown in Annex IX", moving it to packaging/instructions/warranty only in exceptional size/function cases (Art. 14(4)).
- Design duty: Member States encourage design facilitating re-use and treatment, and producers must not prevent re-use through specific design features or manufacturing processes, save for overriding advantages (Art. 4).
- Information for treatment facilities: re-use and treatment information for each new EEE type within one year of placing on the market (Art. 15).
Contents
| Document | Covers |
|---|---|
| SCOPE-AND-DEFINITIONS.md | Arts. 1–3 — scope and the producer definition |
| PRODUCER-OBLIGATIONS.md | Arts. 4, 12–17 — design, financing, marking, user/treatment information, registration, authorised representative |
| ENFORCEMENT.md | Arts. 22–23 — penalties, inspection and monitoring |
Scope note: the collection/treatment machinery addressed to Member States and operators (Arts. 5–11), and the annexes (EEE categories, collection rates, treatment requirements, the Annex IX symbol) are not extracted — the consolidated XHTML carries duplicate annex ids (pre-/post-2018 versions side by side), so annexes are cited by title against the EUR-Lex text instead.
Key obligations at a glance
- Register as producer in each Member State of sale (Art. 16(2)); appoint an authorised representative where selling at distance from elsewhere (Art. 17).
- Finance collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal (Art. 12, Art. 13).
- Mark EEE with the Annex IX crossed-out wheeled bin (Art. 14(4)); inform users about separate collection (Art. 14).
- Provide treatment information per EEE type (Art. 15).
Enforcement
National penalties, "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" (Art. 22), with minimum inspection and monitoring duties on Member States (Art. 23).
Licence
The corpus reproduces the EUR-Lex consolidated text of Directive 2012/19/EU (CELEX 02012L0019-20240408).
The EUR-Lex legal notice (eur-lex.europa.eu/content/legal-notice/legal-notice.html, read 2026-10-01 in the Internet Archive copy captured that day, because EUR-Lex refuses non-browser clients) says: "© European Union, 1998-2026 The Commission’s document reuse policy is based on Decision 2011/833/EU. Unless otherwise specified, you can re-use the legal documents published in EUR-Lex for commercial or non-commercial purposes." For consolidated texts it adds: "The copyright for the editorial content of this website, the summaries of EU legislation and the consolidated texts, which is owned by the EU, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. This means that you can re-use the content provided you acknowledge the source and indicate any changes you have made."
Commission Decision 2011/833/EU on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39, read in the Publications Office Cellar copy on 2026-10-01) provides in Article 4 that "All documents shall be available for reuse: (a) for commercial or non-commercial purposes under the conditions laid down in Article 6", and Article 6(2) lists the conditions that may be attached: "(a) the obligation for the reuser to acknowledge the source of the documents; (b) the obligation not to distort the original meaning or message of the documents; (c) the non-liability of the Commission for any consequence stemming from the reuse."
Conditions, and how this corpus meets them:
- Acknowledge the source: each extracted provision carries a
{.meta}provenance line naming EUR-Lex and the CELEX number, and Sources links the EUR-Lex text. - Indicate changes (CC BY 4.0, for the consolidated text): the provision text is unchanged; the changes are the selection of provisions, the Markdown layout and the added anchors, all described in Meta.
- Do not distort the meaning: the text is reproduced verbatim and checked mechanically against the source (see Meta).
- No endorsement or liability: the corpus does not claim that the EU or the Publications Office endorses it, and only the Official Journal text is authentic.
Related
- Product-safety cluster index
- RoHS Directive — the substances companion: RoHS restricts what goes in, WEEE governs what comes out