Class marks: the EU's C classes and the UK's own marks.

What it rests on. The EU classes are set by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945, whose text could not be read for this site's research. The EU figures below come from Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport (its dipul platform, 2026), Spain's aviation safety agency AESA (page last modified 21 May 2026) and EASA's own pages. The UK figures come from the CAA's Drone and Model Aircraft Code, CAP2320 (March 2026), and its Remote ID page.

European Union: classes C0 to C6

As Germany's transport ministry states them, citing Regulation 2019/945:

The C1 limit is worded two ways. AESA, as summarised in a search result, gives C1 as under 900 g or under 80 joules of impact energy; the German ministry gives only the 900 g mass limit. The 80 J figure was seen only in a search summary and is unconfirmed.

Remote ID by class is also disputed for C5 and C6; see Remote ID.

EASA's FAQ adds how the lower classes fly: class 0 in A1; class 1 in A1 but minimising flight over uninvolved people; class 2 in A2, keeping a safe distance from uninvolved people (generally the flying height, at least 5 m), or under A3 conditions. It also says a drone with a camera is not a toy under the toy directive and must meet Regulation 2019/947.

Legacy drones

EASA's publication of 20 December 2023 says that from 1 January 2024, drones without a class mark that were placed on the market before that date may still fly in A1 if under 250 g maximum take-off mass including payload, or in A3 if under 25 kg. The transitional limits that applied until 31 December 2023 (A1 up to 500 g, A2 up to 2 kg, A3 up to 25 kg) have ended. Germany's ministry adds that unmarked drones could be placed on the market for the Open category only until 31 December 2023, and that unmarked drones placed on the market after that may be flown only in the Specific category.

Privately built drones

EASA's FAQ says a privately built drone can be in the Open category if it weighs under 25 kg, with its subcategory set by weight (A1 if under 250 g). EASA's Open category page says "privately built" means built for one's own use and excludes ready-to-assemble kits. AESA defines it the same way: assembled or made for the builder's own use and not for sale, including assembly from separately sold parts, but not assembly from a single ready-to-assemble kit; the builder is not a "manufacturer" under 2019/945.

AESA lists where privately built drones may fly: Open subcategory A1 (under 250 g and under 19 m/s) or A3 (under 25 kg), the Specific category, under an authorisation granted to a model club or association (from 1 January 2023), under Article 22 of 2019/947, or in geographical zones with their own requirements. More on the law in the EU.

Who may change a class-marked drone

AESA says a class mark is a technical feature set by the manufacturer, which an operator cannot apply. Changes that take weight or performance outside the manufacturer's specifications breach the CE marking requirements; replacing a part with one of the same physical and functional characteristics (its example is a propeller of the same design) does not. Anyone who modifies a product already on the market in a way that may affect its conformity is treated as a manufacturer. AESA also says conformity assessment uses modules A (internal production control), B plus C, and H; that only classes C0, C4, C5 and C6 may use internal production control; and that EASA selected EN ISO/IEC 17065 as the reference standard for notified bodies.

United Kingdom: UK0 to UK6

The UK uses its own marks from 1 January 2026.

• New products: new drones and model aircraft placed on the UK market from 1 January 2026 must carry a UK class mark, UK0 to UK6; legacy models can still be sold and flown under the weight-based rules (CAP2320, p.5). The CAA's Remote ID page uses UK4 for model aircraft.
• EU marks in the UK: a drone with an EU C class mark may be flown as the matching UK class until 31 December 2027, for example C1 as UK1 (CAP2320, p.6).
• Distances: aircraft under 250 g, or of class UK0, UK1 or C0 (and C1 until 31 December 2027), may fly closer than 50 m to uninvolved people and over them (though, the Code says, never over crowds, whatever the aircraft's size), and are excepted from the 150 m distance from residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas (CAP2320, pp.15 to 18, points 4 to 6).
• Remote ID: from 1 January 2026 for UK1, UK2 and UK3 (and UK5 and UK6 in the Specific category); from 1 January 2028 for UK0 with a camera from 100 g, UK4 unless exempted, and privately built and legacy aircraft with a camera from 100 g (CAA Remote ID pages).

The CAA's own class-mark page was not read for this site, so the technical limits of each UK class (mass, speed and features) are not given here. More on the law in the UK.