The UK implimentation of the EMC regulations SI 1992 No Si2372 makes it an
offence to take into service relevant equipment that does not comply with the
essential protection requirements of not causing or being susceptible to
interference.
There is no specific offence of taking into service equipment that
is not CE marked, has not met the requirements of one of the routes to
compliance
or has not had a declaration of conformity issued. These offences only pertain
to the
supply of equipment.
It might be argued that to knowingly buy non-CE marked equipment makes one an
accessary after the fact in the offence of supplying such equipment but I
expect that the chances of such a prosecution are vanishingly small.
The question you have to ask is how can you be sure that a non-CE marked
computer does not actually cause interference.
It is most probable that if it did cause interference
and it came to the notice of the authorities, you would be told to stop
operating the equipment or to fix it but in the case of a large scale user
of interfering equipment, the authorities might chose to prosecute
especially if there had been prior complaints. In such a prosecution,
if you were judged to be sophisticated enough to know about CE
marking, the fact that you knowingly took the equipment into service without
CE marking may count against you as evidence of reckless disregard of
your duty to take due care to avoid taking into sevice equipment that did not
meet the protection requirements.
Nick Rouse
