On July 10, 2026, the National Council for the Environment (Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente – CONAMA) published CONAMA Resolution No. 516/2026 in an extraordinary edition of the Federal Official Gazette. The Resolution establishes restrictions on the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment placed on the Brazilian market. The Resolution constitutes the regulatory implementation of the so-called “Brazilian RoHS,” in reference to the expression Restriction of Hazardous Substances, and entered into force on the date of its publication.
Restrictions and Compliance Deadlines
The Resolution establishes maximum concentration limits by weight in homogeneous materials for ten hazardous substances contained in electrical and electronic equipment, including wires, cables, and spare parts intended for the repair, reuse, functional upgrade, or capacity enhancement of products.
The following limits were established:
Manufacturers and importers must comply with the following phased deadlines for product adaptation:
The restrictions do not apply to spare parts intended for the repair or reuse of equipment placed on the market that was designed and manufactured before the expiration of the respective compliance deadlines. Equipment covered by temporary exemptions is also excluded.
Where a substance is already subject to other regulations, the more restrictive provision shall prevail. Specifically with respect to mercury, the concentrations and restrictions established under Federal Decree No. 9,470/2018, which promulgates the Minamata Convention on Mercury, must also be observed.
Temporary Exemptions
The Resolution allows temporary exemptions to be granted for specific applications of electrical and electronic equipment where at least one of the following conditions is met:
Applications may be submitted by manufacturers and importers and will be decided by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima – MMA). Renewal applications must be submitted at least 18 months in advance, and the exemption will remain valid until a final decision is issued.
If a renewal application is denied or an exemption is revoked, a transition period of no less than 12 months and no more than 18 months will be granted.
Within 180 days from the publication of the Resolution, the MMA must publish:
Registration and Self-Declaration of Compliance
The Resolution creates the National Registry of Electrical and Electronic Equipment Subject to Hazardous Substance Restrictions, which is yet to be implemented and regulated by the MMA.
Registration will be mandatory and must be completed before the manufacture or importation of the equipment. Each item of equipment, model, or product family must be registered individually, resulting in an individual self-declaration of compliance.
Manufacturers and importers will have one year from the date on which the system becomes available to enter the required information in the registry and issue the corresponding self-declarations.
The self-declaration must accompany the product or its packaging, either in full or through a redirecting tool that allows consumers to access it easily. It must also be made available online.
Obligations Applicable to the Distribution and Commercialization Chain
In addition to ensuring compliance with the concentration limits, manufacturers and importers must:
Distributors and retailers, in turn, must require manufacturers and importers to make the self-declaration available as a condition for the distribution and commercialization of the products.
Importers, distributors, and retailers may be deemed equivalent to manufacturers where they market equipment under their own name or trademark, alter the products in a manner that may affect compliance, or fail to require the self-declaration.
Identification, Traceability, and Separate Disposal
Equipment must bear clear information, in Portuguese, enabling its identification and traceability, including the model, batch, serial number, trademark, contact address in Brazil, and identification of the manufacturer or importer.
Equipment subject to reverse logistics obligations must also display a symbol indicating separate disposal.
The obligations relating to technical documentation and equipment identification and traceability will become enforceable upon issuance of the self-declaration of compliance. The obligation to include the separate disposal symbol will become enforceable two years after issuance of the self-declaration.
Enforcement
The federal environmental authority may request product samples, require testing to verify the concentration of restricted substances, and seize equipment held by distributors and retailers.
Testing must be performed by duly accredited laboratories. If a violation is identified, the liable party must bear the costs related to testing, seizure, storage, and destruction of the products.
Failure to comply with the Resolution will subject violators to the penalties provided for under environmental legislation, without prejudice to the obligation to recall and properly dispose of non-compliant products.
The list of restricted substances may be updated based on new scientific evidence and the availability of safe alternatives, and the MMA must assess the need to revise the list at least every five years.
In view of the new obligations and deadlines established under the Resolution, manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers are advised to assess the impacts of the Resolution on their products and internal procedures.
Our Environment and Sustainability practice remains available to clarify any questions and assess the legal implications of CONAMA Resolution No. 516/2026 for specific situations.
The full text of CONAMA Resolution No. 516/2026 is available here.
Our Environment and Sustainability practice experts are available to provide further clarification.
