Applies 20 January 2027
EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and applies from 20 January 2027. Being a regulation rather than a directive, it takes effect directly in every member state without national transposition, so there is one text rather than twenty-seven.
It binds anyone placing machinery on the EU market: manufacturers, importers, distributors, authorised representatives, and anyone who modifies a machine substantially after it was placed on the market. A manufacturer outside the EU is bound exactly as one inside it.
The change that gets the most attention is that instructions for use and the declarations may now be delivered digitally. The conditions attached to that permission are where the work is.
“Manufacturers shall ensure that the machinery or related products are accompanied by the instructions for use and the information set out in Annex III. The instructions may be provided in a digital format. Such instructions and information shall clearly describe the product model to which they correspond.”
Everything below quotes the text it relies on. Where this guide summarises, the summary sits next to the words it came from, because the second-hand versions of these rules circulating online disagree with each other on details that matter.
In detail
What the regulation requires
The duties that attach to the documentation itself, whoever you are: what may be digital, how long it has to stay reachable, and in which languages.
Digital instructions for use: what is allowed, and on what conditions
Instructions may be digital under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, but only if the model is identifiable, access is marked on the machine, the user can print and save a copy, and it stays online for at least ten years.
Article 10(7)(c), Article 10(8), Article 11(8)The ten-year availability requirement, and its three different versions
Instructions, declarations of conformity and declarations of incorporation each have their own retention rule under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, and the clock runs per machine rather than per document.
Article 10(6), Article 10(7), Article 15(2)(c)Which languages the instructions have to be in, and who decides
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 names no languages. It names a decider: the member state the machine is placed on the market in. Sell one model into eight countries and you have eight language duties, not one.
Annex III 1.7.4, Article 10(7)What the instructions have to say, not just how you deliver them
Article 10(7) governs how instructions reach a user. Annex III 1.7.4 governs what is in them - and it requires the instructions to cover reasonably foreseeable misuse, not only the use you intended.
Article 21, Article 10(8)The EU declaration of conformity: what it claims, and who it binds
A one page document in which the manufacturer takes personal responsibility for the machine meeting the regulation. It has a fixed structure, it has to be kept up to date, and it has to be translated for every market.
Article 10(2), Article 10(3), Annex IVThe technical documentation: who holds it, and for how long
Annex IV Part A is drawn up before the machine goes on the market and kept for at least ten years afterwards. Importers and authorised representatives carry their own versions of that duty, and none of it is the same as the manual.
Which of it lands on you
The regulation gives manufacturers, importers, distributors and authorised representatives four different lists. Read the one you are on.
What Article 10 puts on the manufacturer
The manufacturer draws up the technical documentation, keeps it and the declaration for ten years, marks the machine so it can be identified, and ships the instructions. Being outside the EU changes none of it.
Article 12(2), Article 13(4), Article 13(8)Importer and authorised representative obligations
Importers and authorised representatives carry their own ten-year documentation duty under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, separate from the manufacturer, and it outlives the supplier relationship.
Article 15(1), Article 15(2)The distributor checks, and the check is specific
Article 15 gives distributors the shortest list in the regulation: before making a machine available, verify the CE marking, the declaration, and that the instructions are there and in the right language for that market.
Article 12(1), Article 12(2)The authorised representative’s mandate, and what cannot be in it
A manufacturer may appoint one by written mandate. Designing the machine and drawing up the technical documentation can never be delegated, and the ten year duty to hold the file outlives the contract that created it.
Article 11, Article 22, Annex V Part BPartly completed machinery: a different document, and a different declaration
If you make something that is meant to be built into another machine, you do not issue a declaration of conformity. You issue a declaration of incorporation under Article 22, and you ship assembly instructions rather than instructions for use.
Article 17, Article 18When modifying a machine makes you its manufacturer
Article 18 is one sentence long and it transfers the whole of Article 10 onto whoever substantially modifies a machine. Article 17 does the same to anyone who puts their own name on one.
When it starts, and what happens to machines already sold
The application date, the repeal of the Machinery Directive, and the rule that decides which text a machine shipped in 2026 is judged against.
What changes on 20 January 2027, and how the Regulation differs from the Directive
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC on 20 January 2027. For documentation the changes are specific: instructions and declarations may be digital, they have to stay online, and importers are named directly.
Article 51(2), Article 52, Article 54From the Machinery Directive to the Regulation: the dates, and what happens to machines already sold
Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies from 20 January 2027 and Directive 2006/42/EC is repealed the same day. Machines lawfully placed on the market before then may still be made available, but the new ten year clocks run per unit from the day each one is placed.
Source text: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2023 on machinery. Quotations are from the English language version on EUR-Lex. This guide is not legal advice.