Making available on the market
Any supply of a product with digital elements for distribution, consumption, or use on the EU market in the course of a commercial activity, whether for payment or free of charge. Unlike "placing on the market" (which refers to the first supply), "making available" covers every subsequent supply in the supply chain, including by importers and distributors.
Source citations
Regulation text
Article 3(22) of Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 defines making available on the market as:
"any supply of a product with digital elements for distribution, consumption or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge".
Relationship with placing on the market
| Concept | Scope |
|---|---|
| Making available | Every supply of a given unit in the supply chain (manufacturer → importer → distributor → retailer → end user) |
| Placing on the market | The first making available of an individual unit by the manufacturer (or importer, for products from outside the EU) |
Per the 2022 Blue Guide §2.3, placing on the market refers to each individual unit, not to a product type or model. Each unit therefore has its own placing-on-the-market event when it is first supplied; every later supply of that same unit downstream is "making available" but not a new "placing on the market".
Scope of the CRA
The CRA applies in full to products placed on the market on or after 11 December 2027 (Art. 2(1), Art. 71(2)). Products placed on the market before that date may continue to be made available without CRA design and conformity-assessment obligations under the grandfathering rule (Art. 69(2)), but must still comply with vulnerability and incident reporting obligations from 11 September 2026 (Art. 69(3), Art. 14).
Once a specific unit has been conformity-assessed and placed on the market, subsequent making-available transactions for that same unit (resales, redistribution) do not require a fresh conformity assessment, provided no substantial modification has occurred.
However, newly-manufactured units of the same model placed on the market on or after the CRA application date are each a new placing on the market and must each comply with the CRA — even if earlier units of the model were placed on the market before the deadline. The conformity assessment is carried out by the manufacturer for the product (model), but its results (CE marking, EU DoC, technical documentation) must accompany each unit placed on the market.
Distributors and making available
A distributor who makes a product available is in scope of Art. 20 obligations, even though they are not "placing" it on the market. Their primary check is confirming the product is compliant before supplying it further.
Remote delivery and software
For digitally-distributed standalone software, the Commission's guidance (C(2026) 5252, 27 July 2026) recognises that digital distribution does not have physical boundaries. A software version is considered placed on the market once, when development is complete and it is first offered commercially. Subsequent downloads of that same, unmodified version are "making available" of an already-placed product — they are not new placings on the market and do not require CRA compliance if the version was first offered before 11 December 2027. However, a new version released after 11 December 2027 that constitutes a substantial modification is a new placing on the market and must comply in full.
For SaaS and cloud-based products that include a remote data processing solution (RDPS), the provision of the service to users in the EU is the point of making available.