Does the CRA apply to internal tools?
Likely no
Likely no. The Regulation applies to products made available on the market, meaning supplied for distribution or use on the EU market in the course of a commercial activity; a tool kept inside your organisation is not supplied to anyone [[F-101]] [[F-007]].
The deciding factors
| Factor | If true | If false | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supplied to any third party for distribution or use | Made available on the market | Internal only: outside | F-101 |
| Supplied in the course of a commercial activity | Scope questions continue | Likely out of scope (or the open-source light regime) | F-007 |
| Later offered to customers or partners | Verdict changes; re-check | No change | F-102 |
| Has a direct or indirect connection to a device or network | It is a product with digital elements | Likely out of scope | F-005 |
Check your own product
Start the short scope check with the product type pre-selected. Every legally material fact — EU availability, commercial activity, exclusions, your role — is asked, never assumed.
Example scenarios
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Internal admin tool used by your own staff only
Likely out of scope · role: _
Answer the check's first question as not made available: the tool is used only by your own staff, so nothing is supplied for distribution or use on the market.
Deciding fact: Art. 3(22)
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The same tool later licensed to customers
Likely in scope · role: _
Licensing to customers is commercial supply of a product with digital elements.
Deciding fact: Art. 3(1), Art. 2(1)
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Tool given free to customers as part of a paid service
Likely in scope · role: _
Supplying the tool as part of a paid service is a commercial activity; it is made available on the market.
Deciding fact: Art. 3(1), Art. 2(1)
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Not sure whether use by a partner company counts as supply
It depends on one fact · role: _
Commercial supply is the deciding fact. Use by a separate legal entity under a paid or service arrangement is supply; purely internal use is not.
Deciding facts: Art. 3(1), Art. 2(1); Art. 2(1), Art. 3(22), Recitals
Each scenario is a fixture: the shared CEMarque rules engine evaluates its inputs at build time and the page cannot be served if the outcome shown here differs from the engine's.
Edge cases
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Why
Making available, not making
The Regulation attaches to making available on the market: supply for distribution or use on the EU market in the course of a commercial activity [1]. Developing software and running it for your own staff involves no supply to a third party, so the software is not made available on the market and the Regulation does not apply to it [1] [2].
Where the line moves
Giving the tool to customers, even free as part of a paid service, is supply in the course of a commercial activity [2]. Licensing it to a partner or another legal entity is supply. Group structures need care: use inside one legal entity is internal; supply between separate entities under a commercial arrangement may not be.
Spin-outs and later productisation
Monetisation or commercial redistribution by you changes a non-commercial verdict, and the check should be re-run when it happens [3]. The tool becomes a product with digital elements on the day it is first made available [4] [1].
What to do next
CRARequired only answers applicability. CEMarque carries your answers forward and adds your role, class, conformity route, dates, obligations, and a permanent cited verdict.
Check my product Run the full cited determination on CEMarque
Related applicability questions
Sources
- F-101 Made available on the market means supply for distribution or use on the EU market in the course of a commercial activity. Art. 3(22) EUR-Lex ↩
- F-007 The Regulation applies to products made available on the market in the course of a commercial activity; charging a price, charging for support, monetising via advertising or data, or otherwise intending to monetise are commercial activity. Art. 2(1), Art. 3(22), Recitals EUR-Lex ↩
- F-102 Monetisation or commercial redistribution by you changes a non-commercial verdict; re-check when that happens. Recitals EUR-Lex ↩
- F-005 A product with digital elements is a software or hardware product and its remote data processing solutions, including components placed on the market separately, whose intended purpose or reasonably foreseeable use includes a direct or indirect logical or physical data connection to a device or network. Art. 3(1), Art. 2(1) EUR-Lex ↩
CRARequired answers applicability only, using scope logic and cited regulatory facts maintained by CEMarque, which encodes Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 and published guidance as of Facts v2026.09.4 (10 September 2026). Results are "likely" or "conditional" readings of your answers, not a legal opinion and not a conformity assessment. Run the full cited determination on CEMarque before you act. Methodology.