Radio Equipment Directive (RED) FAQs

• What is the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU?
• What is RED-DA and how is it different from RED?
• What is my responsibility to meet the RED requirements?
• What is my responsibility to meet RED-DA requirements?
• What steps should I take to comply with RED?
• How has Microchip progressed toward compliance with RED?
• How has Microchip progressed toward RED-DA compliance?
• How will Microchip help me comply with RED?
• What is a RED-certified module?
• To help me comply with RED, what collateral will Microchip provide?
• Is a laboratory mandatory to achieve RED 2014/53/EU certification?
• Is third-party assessment needed to achieve RED-DA certification? 
• What does the test lab require?

RED 2014/53/EU establishes a regulatory framework for placing radio equipment on the market in the European Union (EU). It ensures a single market for radio equipment by setting essential requirements for safety and health, electromagnetic compatibility and the efficient use of the radio spectrum.

If you manufacture end products* with radio communication capabilities that ship into the EU market, you are responsible for ensuring that your products comply with RED. We provide the necessary technical support to enable you to complete your regulatory compliance obligations for your end products.

The following FAQs will help outline your obligations and our support for RED compliance.

Please refer to the European Commission’s FAQs and Guide to the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/53/EU for additional information.

Note: references to end product manufacturers are typically our clients who use our Radio Frequency (RF) Integrated Circuits (ICs) and modules in their products.

*End product refers to devices manufactured by our clients that are then sold to their customers.

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While RED sets requirements for safety, spectrum efficiency and compatibility, RED Delegated Authority (DA) introduces mandatory cybersecurity requirements for wirelessly connected products sold in the EU. Effective August 1, 2025, manufacturers must now reassess RED-compliant products to ensure they also meet the new RED-DA cybersecurity standards.

What are the RED-DA cybersecurity standards?

• Article 3.3(d): Protection of network connections—this entails implementing secure network connections, robust authentication mechanisms and protection against unauthorized access
• Article 3.3(e): Protection of personal data and user privacy—this entails proper data encryption, secure data storage and user consent mechanisms to safeguard personal data and privacy
• Article 3.3(f): Protection against financial fraud—this involves preventing fraud via secure payment interfaces and transaction verification mechanisms

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You should review RED and other referenced standards in their entirety to fully understand the requirements for RED compliance. A few of the responsibilities of the end products, not our SoCs or wireless modules, are summarized below:

• You must assess all end products with built-in radios
• You should make the updated Declaration of Conformity (DoC) available for compliant products
• You must update the user manual for your product to include RF specifications such as frequency range, transmit output power and software version
• Your end product must meet traceability requirements by providing information, such as contact information and website address 
• You should prepare for market surveillance activities and compliance with the latest regulations

Please refer to the harmonized standards for RED for more information.

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If you manufacture wireless-enabled products for the EU market, you must comply with RED-DA requirements. The regulation applies to all products released to the EU market after August 1, 2025.

RED-DA obligations vary depending on a product's market status when the rules take effect:

• Products not yet introduced to the EU market by August 1, 2025, must comply with RED DA 
• Items already delivered to distributors or available for sale before that date are considered placed on the market and are exempt from retroactive enforcement
•  However, if any product undergoes security-related changes after August 1, 2025, it may be treated as a new product and may require a fresh compliance evaluation

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We strongly recommend that you take the following steps to comply with RED:

1. Familiarize yourself with RED and new standards from ETSI to identify the standards relevant to your end product.
2. Identify laboratories and begin executing RED compliance testing for your end products that utilize our RF ICs and modules. 
3. Complete compliance testing, collateral and logistical updates. 

Creating and updating collateral and making changes to packaging labels and other materials may take time. Starting early will help you reach compliance in a timely manner.

The European Commission’s Blue Guide indicates the necessary responsibilities of a manufacturer, including marking and label implementation and details for placing radio equipment into the EU market.

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We have a long history of certifying radio module products to the latest standards and maintaining our compliance obligations with regulatory bodies worldwide, including ETSI. We are also a member of the RED Compliance Association (REDCA) and have been working closely with several regulatory compliance laboratories worldwide. 

Regarding RED, we've monitored the progress of various ETSI standards—draft and harmonized—and identified laboratories worldwide with test and measurement systems capable of performing the new tests mandated by these standards.

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We worked with a third-party laboratory to evaluate one of our most popular Wi-Fi^® modules and completed the RED-DA certification for it. Using the knowledge gained, we're performing self-assessments on our other wireless SoCs and modules and creating documentation to demonstrate compliance.

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You can perform compliance testing in multiple ways as described in ETSI Guide EG 203 367 V1.1.1 (2016-06), but essentially have two options:

• Test your entire product, including the RF module, as a single system
• Use our pre-certified module's test data in your end product's assessment, provided that the installation and usage match the test conditions

Some of our modules may not be pre-certified under RED. However, we still provide the documentation you need to support your compliance process.

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A RED-certified module is a component that is already certified to meet the RED standard requirements. However, when integrating the RED-certified module into the end product, you must subject the end product to the assessment to comply with the RED standard requirements. 

A RED-certified module saves time and cost compared to a chip-down-based design. For a chip-down-based RF design, you are required to complete all the tests to comply with the RED standard.

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You can find the certifications for an individual product on its respective product page. You will find certification documents in the Documents section under the Certifications category.

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Laboratory testing is mandatory to achieve regulatory certification. If you do not have a recognized accredited testing laboratory within your organization, then you are required to test your product through an external laboratory.

For RED certification, you must ensure that your product conforms to all the essential RED requirements. You can achieve this either by testing with a harmonized standard or a non-harmonized standard.

We suggest testing the end product against the harmonized standard. However, for products that require testing with a non-harmonized standard or method, you must follow an EU type-examination path, and a notified body must review all technical details and testing reports.

For more details on the conformity assessment procedure on the implementation of EU product rules, you can refer to Annex IV in the Blue Guide.

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Your end product's features determine whether third-party assessment is required for RED-DA compliance. Self-assessment is allowed if your product complies with harmonized standards and doesn't fall under specific restrictions such as:

• Password Management
  If your product uses passwords for user access, EN 18031 specifies rules for how those passwords must be set and managed. Even if your product follows those rules, it won't meet RED-DA requirements if users are allowed to skip setting a password altogether. Secure password enforcement is mandatory.
• Toys and Childcare Devices
  For products intended for children, EN 18031 specifies four approved access control methods. However, not all of these are suitable for allowing parents or guardians to manage access. If your product's controls don't support parental oversight, simply following the standard isn't enough to comply with RED-DA.
• Secure Updates for Financial Products
  EN 18031 outlines several secure update options, including the use of digital signatures or secure communication. But when a product handles financial transactions, none of these options alone fully protect against authentication risks. So, even if one method is used, the product may still fall short of RED-DA requirements.

While self-assessment can save time and cost, it requires a solid understanding of EN 18031 and full accountability for end-product compliance. Even if your product is eligible for self-assessment, you might engage a Notified Body to conduct a third-party assessment for independent validation of compliance.

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The test lab expects a detailed product guide and a demonstration of the product's application. Typically, the lab will request detailed design information, including the schematic, block diagram, theory of operations, application use cases, hardware samples and accessories.

For RF testing, labs do require a tool or test firmware to control the radio for a static RF test. The test requires you to adjust certain parameters, such as the operating channel, data rate and transmit power.

For EMC and other testing, labs require normal application firmware.

We recommend that you contact the test lab in advance to determine the applicable test standards for your end product.

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