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:
- Stay informed about EU policy developments affecting Free Software via the FSFE's news channels and newsletter.
- Support the FSFE's ongoing work for Device Neutrality, which safeguards users' rights to choose the software running on their devices.
- Help us continue our work by becoming a supporter of the FSFE. Sustained engagement with EU policy processes requires independent resources.
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.