Methodology — sources and verification

Every regulatory claim this hub and its guides surface traces to a primary, official source. This page documents where the facts come from, how they are verified, and how often.

Sources

The regulatory facts rendered across the hub and the guides come from:

• EUR-Lex — the official text of the EU regulations the guides cite: Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (GPSR), Regulation (EU) 2017/1369 (energy labelling framework), Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (batteries), Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (DSA), Directive 2012/19/EU (WEEE), and their delegated acts.
• European Commission — general product safety — application dates and the harmonised standards published in support of Regulation (EU) 2023/988 from 13 December 2024 onwards, plus the smartphone/tablet energy-label start date of 20 June 2025.
• EPREL — the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling, the registry the EPREL guides describe.
• gesetze-im-internet.de — German federal statute texts, e.g. § 15 EnVKG (fines up to €50,000 for energy-labelling breaches).

How verification works

• Every regulatory claim on this site carries a verification date. The current dataset was verified on 12 June 2026 against the sources above.
• The dated facts live in one machine-checked dataset inside the site's codebase; automated tests lock each value to its citation, so a value cannot silently drift from the source it claims.
• Each guide shows two dates: "Last updated" (when the page content last changed) and "Data verified ... against ..." (when the facts were last re-checked, with the sources linked).
• The 2026-06-12 verification pass also corrected two earlier errors — the Battery Regulation's repeal date for Directive 2006/66/EC (18 August 2025, not February 2024) and the misattribution of German energy-label enforcement (it sits with the Länder market-surveillance authorities, not a single federal agency).

Refresh cadence — and where it currently stands

Be able to check this section against the dates the site actually prints; that is the point of it.

• Re-verification is event-driven first, calendar-driven second. Each dated value sits on a watch list with the event that can change it — an application date arriving, a delegated act expanding EPREL scope, a repeal date passing, a surcharge expiring — and is re-read when that event lands. On top of that, the hub-level facts get a scheduled re-read every 90 days.
• The hub-level regulatory dataset on this page and the home page was last verified on 12 June 2026. That is older than the 90-day target at the time of writing, and it is printed rather than hidden: the site does not bump a verification date without a human re-reading the primary source, so an ageing date stays visible instead of being papered over.
• Each tool carries its own date, and those are not all the same. The individual checkers on the sibling subdomains hold their own versioned datasets and print their own verification dates — some more recent than this hub's, some older. Trust the date on the page you are reading, not a site-wide banner.
• Known watch items with dates already on the list: the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 becomes applicable in January 2027, the PPWR's first obligations bite in August 2026, and the Battery Regulation's phased obligations continue through 2027.

How this site is built

Written plainly, because it is the question a reader should ask about any site with this many pages:

• The code for the hub and every tool is written by one person working with AI coding assistants. That is why there are dozens of tools rather than three.
• The regulatory data is not generated that way. Each dated value is read by a human out of the primary source linked next to it and pinned into a versioned dataset in the codebase, where automated tests hold the value to its citation. Where a source could not be read, no row ships — an absent answer is better than a plausible one.
• The check on all of this is that every claim is falsifiable in one click: open the source link and see whether it says what the page says. If it does not, the page is wrong and should be reported.

Corrections

Found a figure that disagrees with its cited source, or a source link that no longer resolves? Write to microtools.contact@gmail.com with the page URL and the source link. Corrections ship as dataset updates with a fresh verification date, and a dead citation is either replaced with a source that was actually read or removed.

What the tools promise — and what they don't

The SellerGuardrails tools produce planning answers: they apply the published rules to the facts you enter. They do not produce binding classifications or legal rulings — national market-surveillance authorities and marketplaces make the final determination on any product or listing. For regulated high-risk categories (medical devices, machinery, toys with notified-body routes), confirm with a qualified EU-compliance professional before shipping.