The Gas Appliances Directive (GAD) is changing!

Author: Dorota Aladyn

Published: August 2016

The EU Gas Appliances Directive is changing and will soon be replaced by the new Gas Appliances Regulation (GAR). This change moves away from having several country-specific requirements and replaces them with one consistent set of rules across the entire European Union and associated free trade areas.

The movement from the old Directive to the new Regulation brings a number of changes for gas appliance and fitting manufacturers, who are probably used to complying with these rules. However, new rules are also introduced for people importing and distributing gas appliances, particularly "own brand" gas appliance resellers who become the legal "manufacturer" of products in line with the New Legislative Framework.

These groups of economic operators were not previously included in the scope of the Gas Appliances Directive, so now they will need to take time to familiarise themselves with the legislation and make sure that when the deadline comes, their products can still be legally supplied to the market.

As with any other directive and standard, the legislation places a lot of emphasis on the manufacturer to identify and consider all of the risks associated with their products when used in a manner that can be reasonably foreseen. This includes, for example, consideration of potential misuse and risks associated with this. As a result, a Risk Analysis document is required in order to meet the Regulation requirements.

A very important consideration for the Gas Appliances Directive change is the absence of any transition period, which means that after 21 April 2018, all products placed on the market for the first time will have to comply with the new Gas Appliance Regulation (GAR).

As a manufacturer or own brand reseller, we recommend you start looking into the legislation now, to ensure that the products you supply meet the requirements of the Regulation. Leaving it until the last minute may not leave adequate time to resolve any problems found, and certification bodies like ourselves at BSI are predicting a very high demand. That is why it is very important to start planning your journey today and know where your business sits in terms of compliance to the new Gas Appliances Regulation.

Dorota Aladyn
Sector Propositions Manager - Gas & Electric
UK Marketing