Technical articles, news and publications on CE marking

There are still many unanswered questions regarding the practical implementation and interpretation of the Battery Regulation, but now, finally, we have the first answers. The Commission's recently published guidelines explain and illustrate important terms – only in this way is the Regulation slowly becoming more tangible. And the first standards are also being published to help prepare for the battery passport! You can find a brief summary of the details in the technical article.

On 23 May 2023, the new Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) was published in the EU Official Journal, which will replace the previous Product Safety Directive and applies directly in all EU member states from 13 December 2024. Dr Gerhard Wiebe has summarised the main changes that economic operators will face in this technical article.

On 11 December 2024, the Cyber Resilience Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 - CRA) entered into force. This legal act addresses manufacturers, importers and distributors of digital products and will become a cornerstone in the area of digital product law and product compliance. Dr. Gerhard Wiebe has analysed the regulation and provides an overview of the new requirements and obligations of the CRA.

On 18 November 2024, the Commission published the new Product Liability Directive (EU) 2024/2853 in the Official Journal of the EU, which will replace the existing legislation from 1985.  Lawyer Dr Carsten Schucht has analysed the new regulation and presented the most important innovations.

The EU Commission has published the guidelines for the Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU in the new edition. The technical article summarises the changes.

Since the publication of the Machinery Regulation on 29 June 2014, amending documents have been published at irregular intervals in the Official Journal of the European Union. In the technical article, we show in detail where the individual documents modify the existing regulation.

On 6 and 7 November, a conference was held in Linz on the new Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230. We have provided a brief summary of the content and some impressions in our overview.

With the new EU Machinery Regulation, digital operating instructions and declarations of conformity are permitted from the start of validity in January 2027. Providing these documents in digital form is not only intended to conserve resources, but also to increase user-friendliness and improve safety standards in mechanical engineering. In the technical article, Stefan Winkler explains the MVO's requirements for providing operating instructions and declarations of conformity and the extent to which manufacturers can already implement them under the currently valid machinery directive.

The revised standards EN ISO 14119 and EN ISO 13855 will present machine manufacturers with new challenges. With extensive adaptations to the new state of the art and a focus on risk assessments, they increase safety requirements. The technical article summarises the main changes and prepares users for the final standard editions, which are expected in mid-2025.

On 28 October, a conference organised by IBF and Swissmem was held in Zurich on the new Machinery Regulation. In our overview, we have provided a brief summary of the content and some impressions of the second edition of the conference for you.