RED Directive - 3: stakeholders and key vocabulary
Compliance with the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) is a shared responsibility. The Directive distributes legal duties across four economic operators in the supply chain, supported by notified bodies and enforced by national market surveillance authorities. Reading the Directive also requires familiarity with a small set of terms whose meanings are precisely fixed by Article 2.
This post is the third in the series introducing the RED. It identifies the stakeholders touched by the Directive and defines six anchor terms required for the remaining posts in the series.
Stakeholders
Manufacturers hold the primary legal responsibility. They design the product, prepare the technical documentation, perform or commission conformity assessment, draw up the EU Declaration of Conformity, affix the CE marking, and remain accountable for post-market obligations including a ten-year document retention period.
Authorised representatives act on behalf of non-EU manufacturers under a written mandate. They are established within the Union and provide a contact point for authorities.
Importers place radio equipment from a third country on the EU market. They must verify that conformity assessment has been carried out, that the CE marking is affixed, that the required documentation accompanies the product, and that the manufacturer is identifiable.
Distributors make radio equipment available on the market without being the manufacturer or importer. They must check the presence of CE marking and required information in a language understood by end-users in the relevant Member State.
Notified bodies are independent conformity assessment bodies designated by Member States and listed in the NANDO database. Their involvement is required only for certain conformity assessment routes under Article 17.
Market surveillance authorities are the national regulators that enforce the Directive — the Bundesnetzagentur in Germany, ANFR in France, and equivalent bodies in other Member States. Their powers include product recall, withdrawal from the market, administrative fines, and prohibition of further supply.
Key vocabulary from Article 2
The following six definitions are quoted from the consolidated text. The numbers in parentheses match the numbering of Article 2.
Radio equipment (Article 2(1))
'radio equipment' means an electrical or electronic product, which intentionally emits and/or receives radio waves for the purpose of radio communication and/or radiodetermination, or an electrical or electronic product which must be completed with an accessory, such as antenna, so as to intentionally emit and/or receive radio waves for the purpose of radio communication and/or radiodetermination
The word intentionally distinguishes radio equipment from products that incidentally produce electromagnetic emissions, which are covered by the EMC Directive.
Manufacturer (Article 2(12))
'manufacturer' means any natural or legal person who manufactures radio equipment or has radio equipment designed or manufactured, and markets that equipment under his name or trade mark
A company that has a product manufactured by a third party and sells it under its own brand is a manufacturer for RED purposes.
Importer (Article 2(14))
'importer' means any natural or legal person established within the Union who places radio equipment from a third country on the Union market
An importer who modifies a product or places it on the market under their own name takes on manufacturer obligations under Article 12(2).
Distributor (Article 2(15))
'distributor' means any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who makes radio equipment available on the market
Economic operators (Article 2(16))
'economic operators' means the manufacturer, the authorised representative, the importer and the distributor
Conformity assessment (Article 2(21))
'conformity assessment' means the process demonstrating whether the essential requirements of this Directive relating to radio equipment have been fulfilled
The essential requirements referred to in this definition are those set out in Article 3, which is the subject of a dedicated module later in this series.
End of the Module 1 series
These three posts have introduced the Directive, mapped its place within EU product law, and defined the basic vocabulary. Subsequent posts in the series will address scope (Annex I exclusions and borderline cases), the essential requirements of Article 3 including the cybersecurity provisions under Article 3(3)(d), (e) and (f), harmonised standards, conformity assessment procedures, economic operator obligations in detail, CE marking and documentation, and market surveillance including the new emergency procedures introduced by Directive 2024/2749.
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