Does the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) demand the implementation of security?

Since 2014 the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU, abbreviated RED, regulates the making available of radio equipment on the market. A recently published legal act now specifies contents of the Directive with regard to the topics (Cyber)-security and data protection.

This overview intends to explain the motivation of the European Commission as well as some content-related aspects of the legal act.
 

Considerations of the Commission

On a global scale the 5G-technology is on the rise and is most likely going to affect the daily routine within the European Union. Despite all advantages of the technology the dispersion of the standard also endangers cybersecurity. In particular, machines that can communicate via the Internet using a wireless network connection fall under the Radio Equipment Directive and are therefore also exposed to such a threat.

So far, the essential requirements of the Directive have not referred to such equipment connected to the internet. Due to the internet-readiness, this kind of asset is exposed to a certain fraud risk, which is to be reduced via a corresponding adjustment of the requirements. Therefore the EU-Commission saw an urge to “re-sharpen” article 3 of the RED.
 

Content of the legal act

The Commission published the Regulation in the EU Official Journal “supplementing Directive 2014/53/EU (…) with regard to the application of the essential requirements referred to in Article 3(3), points (d), (e) and (f), of that Directive.”¹

The Radio Equipment Directive may grant the Commission the authority to state via delegated legal acts which “categories or classes of radio equipment” are covered in the range of article 3.

A legal act of that kind is Regulation 2022/30: it determines that “internet-connected radio equipment” is also covered by the requirements.

In a broader sense, e.g., internet-connected machinery may not exert any “harm to the network or its functioning or misuse of network resources”, “support features for ensuring protection from fraud” and guarantee the protection of person-related data.

Of course, a machine only has to legally fulfil the cybersecurity requirements of the RED if the machine has a radio interface and therefore falls under the Radio Equipment Directive as radio equipment itself. If a machine only has wired interfaces, it is not radio equipment in this case and is therefore not covered by the RED. The other relevant regulations then apply, such as the Machinery Directive and the EMC Directive, and in future also the new Machinery Regulation and, if applicable, the new Cyber Resilience Act.
 

Effective date and further information

According to the Commission’s information the Regulation will be effective from the 20th day of publication in the Official Journal of the EU (02/01/2022), from 2025-08-01 all products concerned will need to fulfil the new requirements.²

Harmonised standards for the security requirements

The European Standardisation Organisations (ESO) CEN/CENELEC announced after the publication of Regulation 2022/30 that they would develop relevant standards for these requirements. The joint technical committee JTC13 (Cybersecurity and Data Protection) developed the following standards in response: 

• EN 18031-1:2024 Common security requirements for radio equipment - Part 1: Internet connected radio equipment
• EN 18031-2:2024 Common security requirements for radio equipment - Part 2: radio equipment processing data, namely Internet connected radio equipment, childcare radio equipment, toys radio equipment and wearable radio equipment
• EN 18031-3:2024 Common security requirements for radio equipment - Part 3: Internet connected radio equipment processing virtual money or monetary value

According to the website of the publisher CEN/CENELEC, these standards were ratified on 1 August 2024, the following weeks the final versions will be delivered to the national members for publication. Users will then be able to purchase the respective full texts of the standards from there.

For the listing of the standards in the EU Official Journal in accordance with the Radio Equipment Directive, the standards were evaluated by so-called HAS consultants (experts from the auditing firm EY). However, this evaluation of the three parts by the responsible consultants was negative, instead recommending that the Technical Committee should reformulate some parts of the standards. It therefore remains to be seen whether the standards will be published in the EU Official Journal at all or possibly only with restrictions.³

If the standards are not listed in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU) by 1 August 2025 - i.e. there is still no approval from the HAS consultants - the conformity of the radio equipment concerned must be verified by a notified body until it is listed. Such a list of ‘Notified Bodies’ for the Radio Equipment Directive can be found on the website of the EU Commission. 
 

Link to the delegated Regulation

Interested readers can read the full text of the legal act on the portal EUR-LEX.