Article 3

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply: ‘vehicle’ means any vehicle as defined in Article 3, point (15), of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 or listed in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013; ‘end-of-life vehicle’ means a vehicle which is waste as defined in Article 3, point (1), of Directive 2008/98/EC, or which is waste according to Annex I of this Regulation; ‘vehicle type’ means any type of vehicle as defined in Article 3, point (32), of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 or vehicle type as defined in Article 3, point (73), of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013; ‘reuse’ means any operation by which parts or components of end-of-life vehicles are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived; ‘reusability’ means the possibility for reuse of parts or components diverted from an end-of-life vehicle; ‘recyclability’ means the possibility for recycling of parts, components or materials diverted from an end-of-life vehicle; ‘recoverability’ means the possibility for recovery of parts, components or materials diverted from an end-of-life vehicle; ‘supplier’ means any natural or legal person who supplies parts, components or materials to a manufacturer who uses them to manufacture vehicles; ‘plastic’ means a polymer within the meaning of Article 3, point (5), of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, to which additives or other substances may have been added and which can function as a main structural component of final products, with the exception of natural polymers that have not been chemically modified; ‘critical raw materials’ means critical raw materials within the meaning of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1252; ‘pre-consumer waste’ means material diverted from the waste stream during a manufacturing process, excluding reutilisation of materials such as rework, regrind or scrap generated in a process and capable of being reclaimed within the same process that generated it; ‘post-consumer waste’ means waste that is generated from products that have been placed on the market or supplied for distribution, consumption or use in a third country in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge; ‘removal’ means manual, mechanical, chemical, thermal or metallurgic handling with the result that the targeted parts, components or materials from end-of-life vehicles are individually identifiable as a separate output stream or part of an output stream; ‘e-drive motor’ means an electric motor that converts electrical input power into mechanical output power to provide traction to a vehicle; ‘electric vehicle battery’ means electric vehicle battery as defined in Article 3(1), point (14), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542; ‘authorised treatment facility’ means any establishment or undertaking that is permitted in accordance with Directive 2008/98/EC and this Regulation to carry out collection, storage and treatment operations of end-of-life vehicles, including their parts and components; ‘shredding’ means an operation used for tearing into pieces or fragmenting end-of-life vehicles; ‘treatment’ means any activity taking place after the end-of-life vehicle has been handed over to a facility for depollution, dismantling, compacting, shearing, shredding, recovery or preparation prior to disposal of the shredder waste, and another operation carried out for the recovery or disposal of the end-of-life vehicle and its parts, components and materials; ‘repair and maintenance operator’ means a natural or legal person who pursues a professional activity directly or indirectly involving the repair and maintenance of vehicles, including repairers, manufacturers or distributors of repair equipment, tools or spare parts, as well as publishers of technical information, automobile clubs, roadside assistance operators, operators offering inspection and testing services, operators offering training for installers as well as manufacturers and repairers of equipment for alternative-fuel vehicles; ‘making available on the market’ means a supply of a vehicle for distribution or use on the market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge; ‘placing on the market’ means making available a vehicle for the first time on the Union market; ‘waste management operator’ means any natural or legal person dealing on a professional basis with the collection or treatment of end-of-life vehicles, including their parts and components; ‘producer’ means any manufacturer, importer or distributor who, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance contracts as defined in Article 2, point (7), of Directive 2011/83/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (35), makes available a vehicle for the first time for distribution or use, within a territory of a Member State on a professional basis; ‘producer responsibility organisation’ means a legal entity that financially or financially and operationally organises the fulfilment of extended producer responsibility obligations on behalf of several producers; ‘authorised representative for the extended producer responsibility’ means a natural or legal person established in a Member State in which the producer makes vehicles available on the market for the first time, other than the Member State or the third country where the producer is established, and is appointed by the producer in accordance with Article 8a(5), third subparagraph, of Directive 2008/98/EC to fulfil the obligations of that producer under Chapter IV of this Regulation; ‘authorised representative for the cross-border mechanism’ means a natural or legal person established in a Member State and appointed by the manufacturer in accordance with Article 22; ‘secondary raw materials’ means materials that can substitute for primary raw materials and that have been obtained through recycling processes; ‘vehicle owner’ means any natural or legal person holding the ownership right of a vehicle or the holder of the vehicle registration certificate or, if neither the holder of the ownership right nor the holder of the vehicle registration certificate can be identified, the holder of the vehicle; ‘post-shredder technology’ means techniques and technologies used to process materials from end-of-life vehicles, after they have been shredded, for further recovery in accordance with Part G, point 2, of Annex VIII; ‘remanufacturing’ means professional actions through which a new part or component is manufactured to return to same-as-new condition from parts and components that are removed from vehicles or end-of-life vehicles and through which at least one change is made that affects the safety, lifetime, performance, purpose or type of the part or component, in a process that is in compliance with specific technical specifications, including engineering, quality and testing standards; ‘refurbishment’ means actions carried out to prepare, clean, test, service and, where necessary, repair a part or component that is removed from vehicles or end-of-life vehicles in order to restore its performance or functionality within the intended use and range of performance originally conceived at the design stage at the time of the placing of the part or component on the market; ‘non-inert waste’ means waste that does not meet the conditions of definition of ‘inert waste’ laid down in Article 2, point (e), of Council Directive 1999/31/EC (36); ‘used vehicle’ means a vehicle which has been registered in a Member State or a third country and is not an end-of-life vehicle; ‘used vehicle to be exported’ means a used vehicle that is to be placed under the customs procedure, as laid down in Article 269 of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013; ‘economic operator’ means a producer, collector, vehicle insurance company, supplier, repair and maintenance operator, waste management operator, including a dismantler or recycler, and any other operator involved in design of vehicles, trade in used vehicles, dismantling, reuse, or management of end-of-life vehicles, remanufacturing and refurbishment of parts, components and materials from vehicles; ‘roadworthy vehicle’ means a vehicle that is roadworthy in accordance with Directive 2014/45/EU; ‘retrofit operator’ means any legal person that manufactures an electric conversion kit or performs the conversion of internal combustion engine vehicles to battery-electric or fuel cell vehicles; ‘collection point’ means an economic operator, other than an authorised treatment facility, which temporarily stores end-of-life vehicles and prepares the transfer of the collected end-of-life vehicles to authorised treatment facilities for treatment; ‘waste’, ‘waste oils’, ‘waste holder’, ‘waste management’, ‘collection’, ‘prevention’, ‘recovery’, ‘recycling’, ‘backfilling’, ‘disposal’ and ‘extended producer responsibility scheme’ mean waste, waste oils, waste holder, waste management, collection, prevention, recovery, recycling, backfilling, disposal and extended producer responsibility scheme as defined in Article 3, points (1), (3), (6), (9), (10), (12), (15), (17), (17a), (19) and (21), respectively, of Directive 2008/98/EC; except for L-category vehicles: ‘type-approval’, ‘multi-stage type-approval’, ‘component’, ‘parts’, ‘spare parts’, ‘base vehicle’, ‘vehicle produced in small series’, ‘special purpose vehicle’, ‘market surveillance authority’, ‘approval authority’, ‘manufacturer’, ‘importer’ and ‘distributor’ mean type-approval, multi-stage type-approval, component, parts, spare parts, base vehicle, vehicle produced in small series, special purpose vehicle, market surveillance authority, approval authority, manufacturer, importer and distributor as defined in Article 3, points (1), (8), (19), (21), (23), (24), (30), (31), (35), (36), (40), (42) and (43), respectively, of Regulation (EU) 2018/858; for L-category vehicles: ‘type-approval’, ‘base vehicle’, ‘component’, ‘parts’, ‘spare parts’, ‘manufacturer’, ‘importer’, ‘distributor’, ‘approval authority’ and ‘market surveillance authority’ mean type-approval, base vehicle, component, parts, spare parts, manufacturer, importer, distributor, approval authority, and market surveillance authority as defined in Article 3, points (1), (11), (16), (18), (21), (47), (49), (50), (56) and (57), respectively, of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013, and ‘vehicle produced in small series’ means vehicle produced in small series as referred to in Article 42 of that Regulation; ‘registration’, ‘registration certificate’, ‘holder of registration certificate’, ‘suspension’ and ‘cancellation of registration’ mean registration, registration certificate, holder of registration certificate, suspension and cancellation of registration as defined in Article 2, points (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f), respectively, of Directive 1999/37/EC; ‘vehicle of historical interest’, ‘roadworthiness test’ and ‘roadworthiness certificate’ mean vehicle of historical interest, roadworthiness test and roadworthiness certificate as defined in Article 3, points (7), (9) and (12), respectively, of Directive 2014/45/EU; ‘substance of concern’ and ‘data carrier’ mean substance of concern and data carrier as defined in Article 2, points (27) and (29), respectively, of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781; ‘customs authorities’ means customs authorities as defined in Article 5, point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013; ‘online platform’ means online platform as defined in Article 3, point (i), of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065; ‘small-volume manufacturer’ means small-volume manufacturer as defined in Article 3, point (48), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1257; ‘light means of transport battery’ or ‘LMT battery’ means light means of transport battery or LMT battery, respectively, as defined in Article 3, point (11), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542; ‘packaging waste’ means packaging waste as defined in Article 3, point (25), of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of the European Parliament and of the Council (37); ‘waste electrical and electronic equipment’ means waste electrical and electronic equipment as defined in Article 3(1), point (e), of Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (38); ‘biobased plastics’ means biobased plastics as defined in Article 3, point 53, of Regulation (EU) 2025/40; ‘reclamation’ means reclamation as defined in Article 3, point (13), of Regulation (EU) 2024/573.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-14 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.