Machinery delivered in 2027: Directive or Regulation?

At a glance

• Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 will become mandatory on 20 January 2027 and will replace Directive 2006/42/EC from that date.
• Machinery placed on the market in conformity with the Directive before 20 January 2027 may continue to be made available after that date.
• An order signed in 2026 is not, by itself, evidence that the machine was placed on the market in 2026.
• Placing on the market requires the manufacturing stage to have been completed and the machine to be the subject of a first supply or an effective legal transfer.
• Physical delivery may provide important evidence, but it is not necessarily the decisive legal event.
• For series production, the assessment concerns each individual unit: the fact that the model already existed does not preserve the Directive for units placed on the market later.

20 January 2027 is a dividing line, not a period of coexistence

The Machinery Regulation will apply from 20 January 2027. On the same date, Directive 2006/42/EC will be repealed.

Article 52 of the Regulation nevertheless protects the circulation of products placed on the market in conformity with the Directive before that date. A machine lawfully placed on the market by 19 January 2027 does not become non-compliant at midnight and may continue to be distributed or delivered through the commercial chain. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, Article 52(1))

This provision does not create a period in which manufacturers may freely choose between the two legal acts. The European Commission explains that machinery placed on the market before 20 January 2027 must comply with the current Directive; the Regulation becomes mandatory for subsequent placing on the market.

The issue, therefore, is not selecting the more convenient legislation. It is correctly identifying and documenting when each machine crosses the dividing line.

What “placing on the market” actually means

The Regulation defines placing on the market as the first making available of a product on the Union market. Making available means any supply for distribution or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, Article 3, points 11 and 12)

The Commission’s Blue Guide adds two essential clarifications.

First, there must be an offer or agreement, written or verbal, for the transfer of ownership, possession or another property right concerning the product.

Second, the manufacturing stage must have been completed. A contract to manufacture a machine in the future according to the customer’s specifications does not, by itself, constitute placing on the market of a machine that has yet to be completed. (Blue Guide 2022, section 2.3)

Physical delivery is not always required: the transfer may precede transport. But it is equally insufficient to claim retrospectively that a machine “already belonged to the customer” if, on the stated date, it was still incomplete, subject to essential work or without the necessary conformity process having been completed.

The substance of the transaction must be consistent with both the documentation and the actual state of the machine. This is an operational reading based on sections 2.2 and 2.3 of the Blue Guide 2022.

Order, invoice, delivery and acceptance: what do the dates prove?

The order date

It is a commercial date, not automatically a regulatory date. If the order precedes completion of manufacture, it does not demonstrate that the machine has already been placed on the market.

The invoice date

It may help reconstruct the transfer, but it does not produce the legal effect on its own. An advance invoice, a deposit or progress billing does not turn an incomplete machine into a product already placed on the market.

The delivery note or physical delivery date

It is often useful evidence, but it is not always decisive. Physical delivery may occur after an effective transfer or before installation and configuration have actually completed the machine. The document must be read together with the contract, the manufacturing status and the allocation of responsibilities.

The acceptance test date

FATs, SATs and acceptance records may provide important evidence, but their meaning depends on the contract and the actual state of the product. Testing a unit that is still being manufactured or validated does not necessarily amount to placing it on the market. Conversely, acceptance testing at the customer’s premises may occur after the machine has already been validly placed on the market.

The declaration and CE marking date

The EU declaration of conformity, CE marking, instructions for use and technical documentation must be prepared in accordance with the applicable legislation before the machine is placed on the market or put into service. They are central elements of conformity, but a date printed on a document cannot replace a transaction that never occurred or prove, on its own, that manufacture had been completed. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, Article 10(2)-(8), Articles 21 and 24; Blue Guide 2022, sections 2.3, 4.3 and 4.4)

Four scenarios companies will actually encounter

Scenario 1: ordered in 2026, completed in 2027

A customer orders a special-purpose machine in November 2026. Design and manufacture are completed in February 2027, after which the machine is supplied to the customer.

Signing the order does not freeze the Directive. If the machine had not yet been manufactured and had not been placed on the market before 20 January, Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 will apply.

Scenario 2: completed and transferred before the date, installed afterwards

A machine is completed, complies with the Directive and is the subject of an effective first transfer to the customer in December 2026. Final delivery or installation takes place in February 2027.

As a general rule, subsequent installation does not automatically change the date of placing on the market, provided that the earlier transfer was genuine, the machine was actually complete and its configuration is not subsequently changed in a relevant manner. The conclusion must always be checked against the contract and the facts of the individual case. This is an operational reading based on sections 2.3 and 2.6 of the Blue Guide 2022.

Scenario 3: a production series crosses 20 January

A manufacturer produces thirty machines of the same model. Ten units are placed on the market before 20 January 2027 and the other twenty afterwards.

The transition must be assessed for each individual unit. The first units may fall under the Directive; those placed on the market later must comply with the Regulation. It is not enough for the same model to have been marketed previously. (Blue Guide 2022, section 2.3)

Scenario 4: machinery manufactured for own use

A company manufactures a machine solely for use at its own site. There is no sale to an external party. In this case, putting into service — the first use in the Union for its intended purpose — becomes a determining factor. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, Article 3, point 13 and Article 10(1))

If first use takes place after 20 January 2027, it would be unsound to base the choice of legislation solely on the fact that design or manufacture began in 2026.

These scenarios are illustrative. Contracts, operator roles, imports, supplies between related companies, machinery installed on site and assembled lines require a case-specific assessment.

The hidden risk: managing the transition by order rather than by machine

The temptation will be to classify every order received in 2026 as “Directive” and every order received in 2027 as “Regulation”: a simple, orderly and potentially incorrect rule.

EU product rules look at the individual unit and the moment when it is placed on the market. A single order may include products that cross the date at different times. A line may incorporate machinery, partly completed machinery and components supplied by different operators. A model manufactured in series may therefore exist under both legal regimes at the same time.

The real transition will not happen in a single night. It will happen serial number by serial number, configuration by configuration and document by document.

This is where the issue ceases to be purely regulatory and becomes organisational. Sales, design, production, testing, technical writing and quality teams must attribute the same meaning to the recorded dates. If each department uses its own “delivery date”, the technical documentation may tell a different story from the contract and the machine itself.

How to prepare orders that cross into 2027

1. Identify the machinery and individual units that may be completed, transferred or put into service around 20 January 2027.
2. Do not use the order date alone as the classification criterion. Record at least manufacturing status, first supply, delivery, installation, acceptance and putting into service.
3. Review the contracts. Transfer clauses, acceptance tests, retention of title and installation responsibilities must be read together with the facts, not isolated to obtain a convenient date.
4. Establish a legislative threshold in the company’s system. Before declaring the conformity process complete, verify that hardware and software configuration, risk assessment, tests, instructions and declaration are consistent with the applicable regime.
5. Manage series production by serial number or unique identifier. The applicable regime must be demonstrable for every unit.
6. Retain consistent, dated evidence: completion records, transfer documents, declarations, marking, instructions revision, software configuration, tests and shipping records.
7. Prepare now any products that will be placed on the market after the date in accordance with the Regulation. Formally accelerating a transfer without having completed the machine and its conformity process does not eliminate the problem; it merely makes the position harder to defend.

The right question is not “when will we deliver it?”

For years, the delivery date has been used as a shortcut for locating a machine in time. In January 2027, that shortcut will no longer be reliable.

The right question is: when was this specific, completed machine first made available on the Union market? Or, if it had not previously been placed on the market, when was it put into service?

If the answer comes from a single date extracted from the company management system, it is probably not yet an answer. If the contract, manufacturing progress, conformity documents and machine configuration all tell the same story, the transition is under control.

For the wider programme, see our overview of machinery safety changes and deadlines in 2027, our guide to preparing for the Machinery Regulation and our article on technical documentation under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.

Waves Engineering supports manufacturers and integrators in reviewing orders that cross 20 January 2027, carrying out gap analyses between the Directive and the Regulation, and aligning risk assessments, technical documentation, instructions and declarations. The objective is not to select a convenient date, but to make the correct date demonstrable.

Primary sources

• Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, consolidated text, particularly Articles 3, 10, 21, 24, 51, 52 and 54.
• The Blue Guide on the implementation of EU product rules 2022, particularly sections 2.2, 2.3, 2.6, 4.3 and 4.4.
• European Commission, Machinery, sections “Machinery Regulation” and “Compliance and conformity”.

The Blue Guide is an interpretative Commission document, not a legally binding source. This article provides general information only: whether machinery has been placed on the market or put into service must be assessed against the facts and documents of the individual transaction.