The Directive applies to apparatus liable to cause electromagnetic disturbances or whose normal operation may be affected by such disturbances. In this context any electromagnetic passive equipment is excluded from the scope of the EMC Directive, since it is considered not liable to cause those effects. A piece of equipment is considered electromagnetic passive if, when used as intended without internal protection measures such as filtering or shielding and without any user intervention, it does not create or produce any switching or oscillation of current or voltage and is not affected by electromagnetic disturbances.

The application of the definition of electromagnetic passive equipment enables (for example) the exclusion of the following equipment from the application of the EMC Directive:

• Cables and cabling system, cables accessories;
• Equipment containing only resistive loads without any automatic switching device; eg simple domestic heaters with no controls, thermostat etc;
• batteries and accumulators.