On July 9, 2021, the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) published the Technical Regulations for Limiting Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Appliances and Equipment with an effective implementation date six months after publication, on Jan. 5, 2022.

However, SASO communicated the postponement of the implementation on Dec. 16, 2021.

SASO Board approved the gradual implementation of the regulation by category.

The new enforcement dates are:

This regulation aims to determine the maximum contents of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and their spare parts and determine the conformity assessment procedures that suppliers must comply with to help address the preservation of the environment and the consumer's health and safety.

This regulation's scope applies to all electrical and electronic devices, equipment and their spare parts for the following categories:

Restricted substances and maximum concentration values tolerated by weight in homogeneous material:

All products in scope of the new regulation will require a certificate of conformity according to the certification module TYPE A1 of the ISO/IEC 17067. The evaluation must be done by one of the Notified Bodies approved by SASO. RoHS technical evaluation will be required to obtain the Product Certification of Conformity (PcoC) under the main regulation. In order to obtain the final CoC and be ready to access the market, the manufacturers need to comply with all the applicable regulations on their products, not only RoHS but also safety, EE and other.

Suppliers will need to apply for RoHS PcoC through the SABER platform. RoHS Technical Documentation and Certification will be required as a preliminary step to obtain the Product CoC under the main product regulation.

UL Solutions has multiple Conformity Assessment Bodies for SASO RoHS (UL LLC, UL International Italia S.r.l, UL-CCIC Company Limited, Underwriters Laboratories Middle East FZ-LLC) and can provide PcoC certifications. Additionally, UL Solutions has global laboratories that can perform RoHS testing through its accredited laboratories.