By jurisdiction
European Union
Mandatory and regulatory records
Verified from primary sources, grouped by how binding each one is. None of these is a certificate; each carries the instrument it comes from and the date it was last checked.
Conditional requirement
Artificial Intelligence Act
The regulation's general application date is 2 August 2026. Obligations phase in: prohibited practices and AI-literacy duties from 2 February 2025; governance and general-purpose-AI rules from 2 August 2025. Obligations for high-risk systems under Annex III were deferred to 2 December 2027 by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744.
- Instrument
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (in force 1 August 2024)
- Who it binds
- Providers and deployers of AI systems placed on, or used in, the EU market, by risk class.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)
The PPWR's general application date is 12 August 2026, when Directive 94/62/EC is repealed. It sets packaging requirements and extended producer responsibility, with staged obligations beyond that date (for example, recyclability performance grades from 2030). It entered into force on 11 February 2025.
- Instrument
- Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of 19 December 2024 (repealing Directive 94/62/EC)
- Who it binds
- Businesses placing packaging or packaged goods on the EU market, whatever the packaging's material or origin.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)
Chapter IV (Arts 35–51, notification of conformity-assessment bodies) has applied since 11 June 2026, so CRA notified bodies can already be designated. Reporting obligations apply from 11 September 2026, and the main obligations from 11 December 2027.
- Instrument
- Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 (in force 10 December 2024)
- Who it binds
- Manufacturers of products with digital elements placed on the EU market.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Voluntary
EU Ecolabel
A voluntary environmental label for goods and services on the EU market. Article 6(6) forbids awarding it to goods containing substances classified under CLP as toxic, hazardous to the environment, carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction — a legal exclusion most private ecolabels do not carry. It is awarded by member states' Competent Bodies (Art. 4).
- Instrument
- Regulation (EC) No 66/2010 of 25 November 2009 (Art. 1: 'the voluntary EU Ecolabel scheme')
- Who it binds
- Voluntary for goods and services placed on the EU market; human medicinal products and all medical devices are excluded (Art. 2).
Official source ↗Last verified:
How this jurisdiction is structured
One national accreditation body per member state
Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, Article 4(1): “Each Member State shall appoint a single national accreditation body.” In any EU member state the answer to “which accreditation body?” is single, and is read from the European Accreditation (EA) directory rather than discovered.
Official source ↗Last verified:
Find a member state's accreditation body
The European Accreditation (EA) directory lists the national accreditation body for each member state and its MLA signatory status.
Official source ↗Last verified:
CE marking — what it is, and what it is not
CE marking is a manufacturer's declaration that a product conforms to the applicable EU harmonisation legislation (Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, Art. 30), affixed by the manufacturer, not issued by a certification body. In the Commission's own words: “a CE marking does not indicate that a product have been approved as safe by the EU or by another authority,” and “there is no central EU body that gives you permission or a certificate allowing you to use the CE mark.”
Official source ↗Last verified: