Materials & Environmental
Restricted Substances to Track Per Homogeneous Material
Active Exemptions with Rolling Expiration Dates
From Customer Request to Audit-Ready RoHS Package with Certivo
Regulation Overview
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive is one of the foundational EU chemical regulations for electrical and electronic equipment. RoHS 2 (Directive 2011/65/EU) restricts 10 hazardous substances and requires CE marking, technical documentation, and EU Declarations of Conformity.
RoHS applies to nearly all EEE across 11 product categories. If your product uses electricity or electromagnetic fields and is sold in the EU, RoHS almost certainly applies.
The challenge: compliance must be demonstrated at the homogeneous material level—not the product level. A single PCB contains hundreds of homogeneous materials, each requiring validation against all 10 substances. With 240+ exemptions expiring on rolling schedules, hazardous substance tracking is a full-time job.
Key Components / Sub-Frameworks
Manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment sold in the EU
Importers bringing EEE into the EU market
Distributors selling EEE in the EU (verification obligations)
Authorized representatives acting on behalf of non-EU manufacturers
Any company whose components are integrated into EEE products
Retailers and online sellers placing EEE on the EU market
Key Thresholds
Your product has been compliant for years because exemption 7(a) covers the lead solder in your power supply. But that exemption expires June 30, 2027—and the renewal timeline means you need to act by December 2025. Do you know which of your 3,000 components rely on which exemptions? One overlooked expiration means your CE marking is invalid.
You've requested RoHS declarations from 200 suppliers. 40% haven't responded. 30% sent PDFs that don't match your part numbers. 15% sent declarations referencing the old 6-substance RoHS. 10% sent expired certificates. Your compliance engineer spends 80% of their time chasing documents and 20% actually validating compliance.
RoHS compliance isn't at the product level—it's at the homogeneous material level. The solder on pin 47 of a 256-pin BGA is a separate compliance unit from the lead frame inside the same component. Your supplier's declaration says "RoHS compliant" but doesn't tell you actual substance concentrations or which exemptions they're claiming. When your customer asks for evidence, "trust us" isn't going to cut it.
Your customer in Germany needs RoHS evidence. UK needs UK RoHS. China needs China RoHS. Korea needs Korea RoHS. Same 10 substances, different documentation requirements, different formats, different languages—and they all want it this week.
Certivo In Action
RoHS Workflow
Electronics Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
Thousands of components per product, each with multiple homogeneous materials
Industrial & Heavy Equipment
Your Pain Point
Long product lifecycles mean tracking exemption changes over decades
Medical Devices & Equipment
Your Pain Point
Category 8 has specific exemption rules (Annex IV)
Automotive Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
Tier 1 suppliers face OEM RoHS requirements stricter than regulation
Aerospace & Defense
Your Pain Point
High-reliability applications often depend on lead solder exemptions
Consumer Goods
Your Pain Point
High SKU counts and fast product cycles
Monitoring & Control Instruments
Your Pain Point
Category 9 IMCI products have specific rules and exemptions
Energy & Infrastructure
Your Pain Point
New EU Battery Regulation overlaps with RoHS
90% Reduction in Compliance Labor
CORA-powered regulatory intelligence extracts substance data automatically. Your team focuses on exceptions that need human judgment—not manual hazardous substance tracking.
4 Hours to Customer Response
Generate complete, audit-ready RoHS packages in hours—not the 3-4 weeks of manual compilation.
Real-Time Exemption Sync
When exemptions approach expiration, Certivo alerts your team instantly. Know which products are affected before compliance gaps appear.
Key Statistics
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Certivo handle the 10-substance RoHS validation?
CORA-driven compliance intelligence parses supplier declarations to extract substance concentrations at CAS number level, then validates each homogeneous material against all 10 RoHS thresholds simultaneously. The system applies the correct threshold automatically (0.1% for most substances, 0.01% for cadmium) and checks exemption validity. You get a clear pass/fail/exemption-dependent status for every component.
Can Certivo track which of my products depend on expiring exemptions?
Yes. Certivo maps products and components to applicable Annex III and Annex IV exemptions, tracks expiration dates, and alerts your team when exemptions approach renewal deadlines. Since RoHS requires renewal applications 18 months before expiration, Certivo gives you advance warning to apply for renewal or redesign affected products.
How does Certivo handle multiple RoHS jurisdictions (EU, UK, China, Korea)?
Certivo validates a single supplier declaration against multiple RoHS regimes simultaneously. EU RoHS and UK RoHS have separate enforcement. China RoHS and Korea RoHS have different labeling rules. Certivo tracks these differences and generates jurisdiction-specific compliance packages from your common evidence base.
What document formats does Certivo accept for RoHS declarations?
Certivo accepts any format—IPC-1752A/B/C, PDF declarations, Excel spreadsheets, supplier-specific templates, even scanned documents. CORA-enabled analysis extracts substance data regardless of format, normalizes it, and validates against RoHS thresholds. No need to force suppliers into a single format.
How does Certivo compare to other product compliance management solutions?
Unlike spreadsheets or single-regulation tools, Certivo is supply chain compliance software combining automated supplier outreach, CORA-powered substance extraction, and multi-framework validation. RoHS, REACH, SCIP, and related regulations validate from a single supplier submission.