WEEE regulations scope

The WEEE Regulations apply to any equipment that requires electrical current (either batteries or mains power) to perform its primary function.

The EU Directive divides EEE and WEEE into 10 categories. The UK has chosen to pull cooling equipment out of Category 1, Display equipment out of categories 3 and 4 and gas discharge lamps out of category 5 to create an additional 3 categories.

Producers must therefore decide which category to list their equipment under from the following:

Large household appliances (e.g. white goods but not less cooling equipment)
Small household appliances (e.g. vacuums, irons, toasters)
IT and telecoms equipment (e.g. computers, printers, calculators, phones, answer machines but not display monitors)
Consumer equipment (e.g. radios, hi-fi equipment, electronic musical instruments but not televisions)
Lighting equipment (but not household lighting)
Electrical and electronic tools (e.g. drills, saws, sewing machines etc., but excluding large stationary industrial tools)
Toys, leisure and sports equipment (e.g. train sets, video games, coin slot machines)
Medical devices (e.g. dialysis machines, ventilators)
Monitoring and Control instruments (e.g. smoke detectors, thermostats)
Automatic dispensers (e.g. ATMs, vending machines)
Display equipment (e.g. TVs and monitors)
Cooling equipment (e.g. refrigeration equipment)
Gas discharge lamps

The above list of 13 categories is an indicative list provided in the Regulations which gives examples of the types of products covered, but this is not intended to be exhaustive. Ask Comply Direct for more producer examples per category.

There are however, certain EU specific exemptions:

Items using more than 1,000 volts AC or 1,500 volts DC
Equipment designed and used purely for military purposes
Large scale industrial equipment (items that are a combination of several pieces of equipment, systems, finished products or components designed to be used in an industrial environment only, are put together by an assembler or installer at a given place and designed to be permanently fixed; and are put together at a given place to be used in a specific environment to perform a specific task)
Equipment that forms part of a non-electrical product e.g. a timer in a gas installation
Household lighting equipment (except torches and gas discharge bulbs which are within scope)
Fixed installations (e.g. an alarm system installed by a professional)