California RoHS: Covered Products, Metal Limits, and Penalties

California RoHS is the state’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances rule, and it does one main thing: it bars the sale of certain video display devices in California if they contain more than trace concentrations of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, or cadmium. The rule sits inside the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 and is enforced by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).¹ Anyone in the sales chain is responsible for compliance: manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers.²

Which Products Are Covered

The rule applies to Covered Electronic Devices (CEDs), meaning video display devices with a screen larger than four inches measured diagonally that DTSC has identified by regulation.³ The current list:

Televisions using CRT, LCD (non-projection), or plasma (non-projection) technology
LCD and LED desktop monitors
Laptop computers with LCD or LED displays
Portable DVD players with LCD or LED screens
Bare CRTs and other standalone cathode ray tube devices

Tablets were removed from the list on July 1, 2022.³ The substance restrictions only reach devices manufactured on or after January 1, 2007, or the date the corresponding EU directive took effect, whichever came later.⁴

Several product types are carved out of the CED definition even when they have screens over four inches:

Displays built into motor vehicles, including replacement parts installed by a manufacturer or franchised dealer
Displays that are part of industrial, commercial, or medical monitoring and control equipment
Displays in major household appliances such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, microwaves, ovens, ranges, dishwashers, room air conditioners, dehumidifiers, and air purifiers

⁵

There is also a safety exemption: if a restricted metal is present because Underwriters Laboratories, the federal government, or the state requires it for consumer, health, or safety reasons, DTSC must exclude that substance from its regulations.¹

One boundary worth naming: the RoHS substance limits in Section 25214.10 do not apply to the new category of “covered battery-embedded products” added by SB 1215 in 2022. Those products have their own recycling fee obligations, but the statute explicitly excludes them from the definition of “electronic device” used for the heavy-metal restrictions.¹⁶

The Four Metals and Their Limits

California adopts the concentration limits set by the European Commission’s Decision 2005/618/EC, applied to each homogeneous material inside a device.⁴ The thresholds:

Lead: 0.1% (1,000 ppm) by weight
Mercury: 0.1% (1,000 ppm) by weight
Hexavalent chromium: 0.1% (1,000 ppm) by weight
Cadmium: 0.01% (100 ppm) by weight

“Homogeneous material” means a material that cannot be mechanically separated into different materials. A single type of plastic, a solder joint, or a coating layer each counts as one homogeneous material, and each must meet the limit on its own. You cannot average a high-lead solder against a low-lead housing to bring a circuit board into compliance.

What California does not restrict is just as important. The statute is anchored to the original EU Directive 2002/95/EC and its European Commission amendments, so it does not cover polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), or the four phthalates added when the EU recast RoHS in 2011.¹ A product certified against the current EU RoHS list is not automatically compliant with California’s rule, and vice versa.

How EU RoHS Decisions Flow Through

California’s statute directs DTSC to prohibit devices from being sold in California if they would be banned in the EU under Directive 2002/95/EC for heavy metal content, and it caps DTSC’s authority: the department cannot make its regulations more stringent than what the statute authorizes.¹ DTSC also must consider decisions published by the EU’s Technical Adaptation Committee and EU member states.

The practical effect is that EU exemptions for specific uses of a restricted metal carry over. If the EU has allowed a certain lead content in a particular application, that exemption applies in California too. The DTSC regulations state directly that the department will not consider any cadmium, chromium, lead, or mercury in a component that has been exempted under Directive 2002/95/EC.⁴ Because the European Commission renews and revises these exemptions on a rolling basis, tracking them is part of ongoing compliance work.

Documenting Compliance

California does not prescribe a single mandatory compliance form. What manufacturers are expected to have is a technical file that describes the product, identifies its materials, and shows that each homogeneous material meets the concentration limits.

Two evidence streams do the heavy lifting. Suppliers issue material declarations or certificates for their components, and the manufacturer supplements those with laboratory testing. The IEC 62321 series of standards specifies the analytical methods used in that testing, including X-ray fluorescence for screening and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for precise confirmation.

Two documents that get confused in supply chains are worth distinguishing. A Certificate of Compliance is typically issued by a regulator or authorized third party and verifies that a product meets a regulatory standard. A Certificate of Conformance is the manufacturer’s own declaration that it built the product to specified requirements. Both play a role, but if DTSC opens an investigation, neither replaces underlying test data.

The Annual Report to CalRecycle

Every manufacturer selling CEDs in California must file an annual report with CalRecycle by July 1 covering the prior calendar year.⁷ The report is broader than a substance-compliance attestation. It must include:⁸

The number of CEDs sold in California by product category, plus the estimation methodology
Estimated average amounts (in milligrams) of mercury, cadmium, lead, hexavalent chromium, and PBBs used per device and per component
Estimates of recycled plastics, glass, and metals used, in tons, and any year-over-year increase
Current and planned efforts related to ease of disassembly, resin identification, and reduction of hazardous materials
A list of retailers the manufacturer has notified about covered products

Beginning April 1, 2026, these reports must be filed through CalRecycle’s designated electronic system.⁸ Missing the July 1 deadline or filing incomplete data can trigger enforcement, and this obligation is separate from the substance-limit rules: a fully compliant product can still put its manufacturer in violation if the report never arrives.

Penalties

DTSC investigates and can issue administrative orders against anyone offering a non-compliant CED for sale in California, including stop-sale orders. Violations are treated under California’s hazardous waste control laws, and the maximum civil or administrative penalty is $70,000 per violation, per day the violation continues.⁹ The department sets the actual amount based on the potential for environmental harm, how far the conduct deviates from the requirement, and the violator’s history.¹⁰

The daily-accrual structure is where the exposure lives. A product that keeps selling for months while a violation is investigated racks up penalties that can easily exceed the product’s California revenue. When a possible compliance problem surfaces, pausing California sales during the investigation is usually cheaper than continuing to ship.

Federal Chemical Rules That Also Reach Electronics

California RoHS covers four metals in video displays. It does not cover other regulated chemicals that show up in the same products. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the EPA has restricted certain persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals used in electronics, including decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), a flame retardant used in plastic housings and cabling, and phenol, isopropylated phosphate (PIP 3:1), which appears in circuit boards and other components.¹¹ The October 2024 compliance deadline for PIP (3:1) in articles has passed, though extended phase-out dates remain for some categories, including commercial electronic equipment and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. A compliance program built around California’s four metals alone will miss these federal rules even though they affect the same product lines.

1
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 25214.10
2
CalRecycle. Electronic Waste Recycling Statutes
3
California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Covered Electronic Waste Recycling Fees Guide
4
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 22, Section 66260.202
5
California Legislative Information. California Public Resources Code PRC 42463
6
CalRecycle. SB 1215 Covered Battery-Embedded Products
7
CalRecycle. Manufacturer Report Advisory for Video Display Devices
8
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 14, Section 18660.41
9
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 25189.2
10
Department of Toxic Substances Control. Initial Statement of Reasons – Administrative Penalty Regulations
11
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic (PBT) Chemicals under TSCA Section 6(h)