On the 27th of January 2003 the European Parliament adopted a guideline on waste of electrical and electronic equipment (2002/96/EG), also called the WEEE guideline. This guideline introduced producer responsibility for electrical products in the waste phase. The aim of the directive is to reduce damages to the environment caused by these products (dumping, landfilling), by even reaching environmental gain through material recycling.

In the transposition process of the directive into nation laws, the producer responsibility changed into a importer responsibility: the one bringing the product into the national market has been made responsible for the waste phase of the product. The importer can therefore be a producer or a distributor. Often distributors ask producers to take over the responsibility for their products, leaving the producer with the obligation to register and arrange take-back.

The directive states the following obligations for producers/distributors:
- Labelling of the product
- Registration with authorities
- Arranging take back of the WEEE
- Environmentally aware design

Registration is a national affair. A producer who sells in 25 European countries will also have to register in all of these 25 countries. He also needs to look for membership with 25 take-back schemes or arrange for individual take-back arrangements.

Environmentally aware designing is also made mandatory through the introduction of the ROHS guideline, which obliges producers to refrain from using hazardous substances like cadmium and lead in their products.