EU – Commission Reduces the Limit Value of “Listed PBDE” under POPs Regulation
Vol. 1496 | 04 Nov 2025
On 28 October 2025, the European Commission published Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1482 amending the POPs Regulation to reduce the unintentional trace contaminant limit for the sum of five "Listed PBDEs" from 500 mg/kg to 10 mg/kg for general articles effective 17 November 2025.
On 28 Oct 2025, the European Commission (EU) published Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1482 amending Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 (POPs Regulation). This regulation reduces the unintentional trace contaminant (UTC) limit value of 500 mg/kg for the sum of the five “Listed PBDE” (TetraBDE, PentaBDE, HexaBDE, HeptaBDE and DecaBDE) in mixtures or articles to 10 mg/kg.
PBDE have been largely phased out in the EU. However, because of past and current recycling activities, these substances can still be found in products made from recycled materials. Since PBDE are mainly found in recycled products, different UTC limits values should be set for general articles, articles made from recovered material, and childcare products and toys manufactured from recovered material.
Below is the summary of different articles
General articles
|
Substance |
Requirements |
Effective Date |
|
Tetrabromodiphenyl ether (TetraBDE) Pentabromodiphenyl ether (PentaBDE) Hexabromodiphenyl ether (HexaBDE) Heptabromodiphenyl ether (HeptaBDE) Bis(pentabromophenyl) ether (DecaBDE) |
500 mg/kg (sum) |
Current |
|
10 mg/kg (sum) |
17 November 2025 |
Articles containing or made of recovered material
|
Substance |
Requirements |
Effective Date |
|
Tetrabromodiphenyl ether (TetraBDE) Pentabromodiphenyl ether (PentaBDE) Hexabromodiphenyl ether (HexaBDE) Heptabromodiphenyl ether (HeptaBDE) Bis(pentabromophenyl) ether (DecaBDE) |
500 mg/kg (sum) |
Current |
|
350 mg/kg (sum) |
30 December 2025 |
|
|
200 mg/kg (sum) |
30 December 2027 |
Childcare products and toys containing or made of recovered material
|
Substance |
Requirements |
Effective Date |
|
Tetrabromodiphenyl ether (TetraBDE) Pentabromodiphenyl ether (PentaBDE) Hexabromodiphenyl ether (HexaBDE) Heptabromodiphenyl ether (HeptaBDE) Bis(pentabromophenyl) ether (DecaBDE) |
500 mg/kg (sum) |
Current |
|
350 mg/kg (sum) |
30 December 2025 |
|
|
10 mg/kg (sum) |
30 December 2027 |
This regulation does not apply to food contact material, as listed PBDE should in principle not be present.
This regulation shall enter into force on 17 November 2025.
Access the update and detail via the following link: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202501482
If you have further questions, please contact Dr. Kathy Leung (Kathy.Leung@intertek.com) or Dr. Ben Cheng (Ben.PS.Cheng@intertek.com)
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