Importing LED lighting from China: EU standards and labelling

An LED fixture or bulb placed on the European market is covered by several texts at once, and none exempts you from the others. The list below forms the minimum baseline, before even adding the rules specific to a particular use, outdoor, professional or connected.

Each text answers a different question: ecodesign sets performance thresholds, labelling informs the buyer, electrical safety and electromagnetic compatibility protect the installation, RoHS limits hazardous substances, and WEEE organises end-of-life. CE marking sums all of this up on the product.

Regulation (EU) 2019/2020 of 1 October 2019, known as the single lighting regulation, sets the ecodesign requirements applicable to light sources and their separate control gear. It replaces three earlier regulations, (EC) 244/2009, (EC) 245/2009 and (EU) 1194/2012, and covers criteria such as luminous efficacy, power factor and useful life.

Delegated regulation (EU) 2019/2015 sets, in parallel, the energy labelling of light sources, with or without integrated control gear. Before placing any product on the market, the supplier must register each item in the EPREL database, the European registry for energy labelling: without this entry, the label printed on the packaging has no value, even if it shows an energy class.

The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which entered into force on 18 July 2024, is progressively replacing ecodesign directive 2009/125/EC and broadens the scope beyond energy efficiency alone, toward durability and repairability. No delegated act specific to light sources has yet been published under this new framework at the time of writing: check the exact timeline before locking in a long-term specification.

The low voltage directive 2014/35/EU covers electrical equipment between 50 and 1,000 volts AC and between 75 and 1,500 volts DC, against the risks of electric shock, overheating and fire. A mains-powered fixture and its driver, the power supply that converts current for the LEDs, typically fall within this scope.

The electromagnetic compatibility directive 2014/30/EU applies in addition, for emissions and immunity to interference. A poor-quality driver, which switches current without sufficient filtering, is a frequent source of non-compliance on this specific point.

As soon as a fixture includes a radio, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi function for app control, it falls under the radio equipment directive 2014/53/EU, which combines electrical safety, electromagnetic compatibility and spectrum use. Since 1 August 2025, delegated regulation (EU) 2022/30 adds cybersecurity requirements to it, presumed met by the EN 18031 series of standards. This regime is set to be absorbed into the Cyber Resilience Act, whose vulnerability-reporting obligations apply from 11 September 2026, ahead of full application of the essential requirements on 11 December 2027.

The RoHS directive 2011/65/EU caps ten substances in electrical and electronic equipment: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, two families of brominated flame retardants and four phthalates, the latter added since July 2019. The usual threshold is 0.1% by weight per homogeneous material, and 0.01% for cadmium. An LED driver, a circuit board or soldered wiring are classic points of attention under this text.

The WEEE directive 2012/19/EU organises the fixture's end-of-life, with a collection target set at 65% of the average weight of equipment placed on the market over the previous three years. When the manufacturer is not established in the Union, the importer placing the product on the market is treated as the producer: it must register in each member state where it sells, fund collection, often through a visible eco-fee added to the price, and display the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol on the product.

A compliant LED fixture is prepared before production, not at loading time. The specification should list the expected documents and their delivery date, and make final payment conditional on their actual receipt.

Five documents form the baseline to require, in addition to the EU declaration of conformity itself, which must cite each applicable text, ecodesign, labelling, low voltage or radio equipment, RoHS, and identify the exact model reference ordered.

Defects on an LED fixture fall into three areas: the driver, the optics, and the documentation. An undersized driver overheats and shortens the announced lifetime, sometimes well short of the tens of thousands of hours listed on the product sheet. Flicker perceptible in use, or only on camera, signals insufficient current filtering.

Actual luminous flux, measured in lumens, sometimes deviates from the value stated on the packaging, as does colour temperature, expressed in kelvins, which can drift from batch to batch. The ingress protection rating, IP44 or IP65 for example, is sometimes overstated on fixtures meant for outdoor use, a point that must be verified by testing rather than by declaration alone. A fixture sold as dimmer-compatible but that flickers or switches off as soon as intensity is lowered is a classic defect, often linked to a driver poorly matched to the dimmer installed at the customer's site.

On the documentation side, missing EPREL registration despite a printed energy label remains a frequent defect, as does a technical file that does not cover the driver, even though it concentrates most of the product's electrical risk.

Sorva is a brokerage and sourcing house, with a Chinese-speaking team based in Guangzhou. For LED fixtures and bulbs, our regulatory compliance study identifies with you the texts applicable to your item, ecodesign, EPREL labelling, electrical safety or radio equipment depending on whether the product is connected, RoHS and WEEE, then checks that the factory has actually compiled the corresponding file, in Chinese, with no room for interpretation.

Our technical product file compiles the drawings, test reports and EPREL entry into a coherent set, linked to your exact reference. A pre-shipment inspection completes the process: it checks the driver, the label, the CE marking and the WEEE symbol on units taken straight out of the box, before the container leaves.

In most cases you pay no fees: you open a file with us, we negotiate the goods for you and we take a commission on their ex-works value.