Victory after a decade preventing Radio Lockdown
The European Commission is choosing to protect user’s right to
install any software on their radio devices by deciding to abandon the
specific article in the EU Radio Equipment regulation that was harming
software freedom.
From 2014 onwards an specific article on the EU regulation Radio
Equipment Directive (RED) threatened to make it impossible to install
custom software on most radio devices like WiFi routers, mobile phones,
Bluetooth chips in computers, GPS receivers, 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 persistent
steady work by the FSFE and a broad coalition of organisations, the
European Commission decided in January 2026 to abandon this provision:
Free Software on radio devices remains protected!
This decision followed an
impact assessment study commissioned by DG GROWEC’s DG GROW
(Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs), published in December 2025. The study evaluated five policy
options and concluded that the risks associated with software
reconfiguration of radio devices "remain theoretical and have not
materialised in a systemic manner". It recommended a soft law approach
based on voluntary guidance and best practices, rather than binding
technical restrictions. Activating Article 3(3)(i) was found to severely
harm Free Software, innovation, and user rights, while imposing
prohibitive costs on small and medium-sized enterprises.
Notably, the impact assessment cited
the legal study by Dr. Till Jaeger, commissioned by the FSFE, which
demonstrated that Article 3(3)(i) is incompatible with widely used Free
Software licences such as the GNU GPL. The FSFE and the concerns raised
by the Free Software community were explicitly referenced as reasons
against activation.
This outcome is the result of more than decade of sustained work with
intense phases, but also phases of waiting for the right moment to get
active again. Since 2015,
the FSFE has been monitoring the regulatory process, contributing
expertise to consultations, publishing analyses, and a broad coalition
of organisations and individuals who raised their voices against Radio
Lockdown. It demonstrates that persistent, evidence-based engagement
with EU policy processes can make a real difference for software
freedom.
This success would not have been possible without the many people and
organisations who took action over the years. Thank you to everyone who
contacted the European Commission and political representatives, who
raised awareness about Radio Lockdown, who participated in public
consultations, who signed the Joint Statement against Radio Lockdown,
and all the FSFE supporters for their financial contributions enabling
our work. Your engagement made a real difference.
However, the underlying idea of shifting compliance responsibility to
manufacturers — and thereby restricting which software can run on
devices — may resurface in other regulatory contexts.
So while the immediate threat of Article 3(3)(i) has been averted,
the idea of restricting software on radio devices could resurface in
other regulations.
Ensure that software freedom remains protected:
It often takes a long breath, patience, the expertise to spot the
right time for action, and the resources to then actually act. With your
help the FSFE will continue to defend the right of users to install or
remove any software on any of their devices.
Become a supporter today!
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