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WEEE/ RoHS Penalties
Monetary fines:
Germany: Maximum EUR 25,000
Estonia: Maximum EUR 1.5 million
France: Maximum EUR 7,500 per infraction
Netherlands and UK: No maximum limit
Ireland, Poland: Prohibition on sales
Czech Republic, Poland and Spain: Revocation of trade licenses
Germany and Ireland: Product recall
Netherlands and Ireland: Imprisonment
Source: Allen & Overy
1) Taiwanese companies fined for not being RoHS compliant: Many Taiwanese manufacturers have suffered from large fines for not meeting the requirements of RoHS when they put products on the European market.
According to an article in SMT the Taiwanese companies don't seem to have taken the RoHS directive seriously. Integrated Service Technology (IST), a test and analysis lab in Taiwan, estimates four or five of Taiwan's electronics companies have been disqualified for business within the European Union (EU) for failure to meet RoHS Directive guidelines. The disqualified businesses were also fined for non-RoHS compliant products shipped to Europe.
According to SMT the fines for the disputed product averaged more than NT$10 million, equal to about $312,500 U.S. One company reportedly received NT$100 million, or $3.1 million U.S., worth of merchandise returned due to incompatibility with lead-free regulations.
2) Apple had to recall products because of RoHS: Apple had to recall a number of products from the store shelves because they were not RoHS compliant.
Anyone who is wondering why the Apple products AirPort Base Station, iSight etc. disappeared from the store shelves a short time before July 1? We can tell you that Apple had to recall the products from the European market in order to meet the RoHS directive's requirement since the products were not RoHS compliant.
A spokesperson from Apple confirmed to Forbes that a number of products from Apple had to be recalled since they didn't complied with the RoHS directive. However the spokesperson stressed that Apple's flag ship the iPod meets the requirements of the RoHS directive.
Source: August 23 2006, 9:50 AM (SMT) by: Jesper Olsson
