RoHS 2, or the Recast RoHS 2 Directive 2011/65/EU, was published in July 2011 by the European Commission. The scope of the original RoHS was expanded to cover all electrical/electronic equipment, cables, and spare parts with compliance required by July 22, 2019 or sooner depending on product category.
<strong>RoHS 2 is also a CE-marking directive</strong>, with RoHS compliance now being required for CE marking of products. As such, all manufacturers of electrical/electronic products must comply with RoHS 2 before the CE mark can be applied on their products. <em>The original green RoHS label with the checkmark is no longer required or used as the CE mark now includes RoHS compliance.</em>
RoHS 1 required that any product in scope should not contain any of the 6 restricted substances and that the company (manufacturer, importer, or distributor) placing the product on the EU market should maintain records to show compliance. RoHS 2 requires additional compliance recordkeeping from everyone in the supply chain. Additional compliance recordkeeping (which must be kept for 10 years) can include a conformity assessment, CE marking, maintenance of compliance throughout production, and self reporting of non-compliance.
The proposed changes to the original RoHS Directive in RoHS2 (2011/65/EU) are relatively minor. No additional substances have been added to the six currently restricted. Inclusion of RoHS categories 8 (medical devices) and 9 (control and monitoring instruments) products in RoHS has been added as well. RoHS 2 took effect January 2, 2013.