European UnionEcodesign Regulation for Smartphones and Tablets, Operating System Updates
Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1670, Annex II, Parts A, B and D
In force since .
A product security requirements rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Security
As of .
What it requires
- It reaches you if you are the manufacturer, importer or authorized representative of a smartphone, a mobile phone other than a smartphone or a slate tablet that you place on the market (Article 1(1)); the Regulation does not apply to mobile phones and tablets with a flexible main display that the user can unroll and roll up, or to smartphones for high security communication (Article 1(2)). If you provide security updates, corrective updates or functionality updates to the operating system of a product model, make them available at no cost for all units of that model from the date of end of placement on the market to at least 5 years after that date, whether you offer them voluntarily or provide them to comply with Union law (Annex II, Part A point (6), Part B point (6), Part D point (5)).
- Make security updates and corrective updates available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand (Annex II, point (6)(c) or (5)(c)).
- Make functionality updates available to the user at the latest 6 months after the corresponding release (Annex II, point (6)(d) or (5)(d)).
- For a smartphone or a slate tablet, where a functionality update you provide shows a negative impact on device performance, modify the released operating system to ensure at least the same performance as before the update, within a reasonable period of time, free of charge and without causing significant inconvenience to the end-user, unless the end-user gave explicit consent to the negative impact before the update (Annex II, Part B point (6)(f), Part D point (5)(f)).
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The market surveillance authorities of the Member States, which apply the verification procedure in Annex IV when performing the market surveillance checks referred to in Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC (Article 5).
What this law does
Article 1(1) of Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1670 establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market of smartphones, other mobile phones, cordless phones and slate tablets. Article 1(2) excludes mobile phones and tablets with a flexible main display which the user can unroll and roll up partly or fully, and smartphones for high security communication.
Annex II, Part B, point (6)(a), requires manufacturers, importers or authorized representatives of smartphones that provide security updates, corrective updates or functionality updates to an operating system to make them available at no cost for all units of a product model with the same operating system, from the date of end of placement on the market to at least 5 years after that date. Annex II, Part A, point (6)(a), imposes the same requirement for mobile phones other than smartphones.
Annex II, Part D, point (5)(a), imposes the same requirement for slate tablets. Point (b) applies the requirement both to operating system updates offered voluntarily by manufacturers, importers or authorized representatives and to operating system updates provided to comply with Union law.
Point (c) requires security updates and corrective updates to be available to the user at the latest 4 months after the public release of the source code of an update of the underlying operating system or, if the source code is not publicly released, after an update of the same operating system is released by the operating system provider or on any other product of the same brand.
Point (d) requires functionality updates to be available to the user at the latest 6 months after the corresponding release.
Annex II, Part B, point (6)(f), requires a manufacturer, importer or authorized representative whose functionality update shows a negative impact on device performance to modify the released operating system to ensure at least the same performance as before the update, within a reasonable period of time, free of charge and without causing significant inconvenience to the end-user, except if the end-user has given explicit consent for the negative impact prior to the update.
Annex II, Part D, point (5)(f), imposes the same requirement for slate tablets. Annex I, point (34), defines a security update as an operating system update, including security patches, if relevant for a given device, whose main purpose is to provide enhanced security for the device. Annex II, Part B, section 1.2, which contains point (6), applies from . Article 10 applies Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1670 from .
Article 5 requires Member States to apply the verification procedure in Annex IV when performing the market surveillance checks referred to in Article 3(2) of Directive 2009/125/EC.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app distributes a software product.