Radio Lockdown Averted
The European Commission decided in January 2026 not to activate Article 3(3)(i) of the Radio Equipment Directive, avoiding potential restrictions on installing custom software on radio devices such as smartphones and routers. This outcome followed over a decade of advocacy by the Free Software Foundation Europe and a broad coalition, which highlighted risks to innovation, user rights, and Free Software. An impact assessment concluded that software-related radio interference risks were largely theoretical and recommended voluntary guidelines instead of mandatory restrictions.
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Our workEU Radio Lockdown DirectiveAn article of an EU regulation threatened to make it impossible to install custom software on most radio devices like WiFi routers, smartphones, and embedded devices. It would have required hardware manufacturers to prevent users from installing any software not certified by them. After more than 10 years of policy work by the FSFE and a broad coalition of organisations, the European Commission decided in January 2026 not to activate this provision. Free Software on radio devices remains protected.The origin of these issues lies in one article of the Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53/EU) which was passed in 2014.
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