European standard (EPBD IV)

Named bodies and public availability

The EPBD IV definition names the three bodies whose standards count: the European Committee for Standardization, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. It adds a condition the general definition does not have: the standard must be made available for public use.

That is the difference from the definition other EU product laws use. The Cyber Resilience Act takes its definition from Article 2, point (1)(b), of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012, under which a European standard is a standard adopted by a European standardisation organisation. The two cover the same bodies in practice, but only the EPBD IV wording includes the public-use condition.

In the operative articles the term appears once, in Article 14(6). Recharging points installed under Article 14 must be capable of smart recharging and, where appropriate, bi-directional recharging, and must be operated on the basis of non-proprietary and non-discriminatory communication protocols and standards, in an interoperable manner and in compliance with any European standards and delegated acts adopted under Regulation (EU) 2023/1804.

A building owner meets the term mostly through suppliers: whether a recharging point complies with the relevant European standards is a question for the installer and the product documentation.