Hi, I was asked some questions the other day which I could not answer. Maybe someone out their in Internet Land can help out.
1. If a company "puts on the market" or sells a product in Europe that does not have the CE marking, and gets caught, Who is it that would catch them? If not the Customs agents who do sometimes look for the CE marking and DOC, then who? Some products are shipped to Europe but not made compliant until they reach Europe so at the time it goes through Customs there is no CE marking or DOC. Who or what authority is in a position to catch non-compliant products from reaching the market or the customer if not the Customs agent? 2. If caught, how much are they fined? Is it a set amount like a traffic ticket or dependent on the cost of the product or the number of products in the market, or what? 3. Does the fine go up if they get caught again or is it the same amount each time? 4. Other than fines, can a company be restricted from shipping products to into Europe or just the country they got caught by? 5. If you get caught in one member country, is there a system in which all other EU countries are notified? 6. Is there a surveillance system where products are tested to verify they really meet the requirements? If so, who runs the system and who pays for it? 7. What would stop a company from just sticking a CE mark on a product and shipping it to Europe, other than the ethical dilemma? What are the odds of getting caught? 8. I've heard that the system is a "self policing" system and that competitors would police each other. Is this true? If I wanted to turn in a competitor or just suspected a product was non-compliant, what action could I take? Is there a reporting system setup in Europe? No, I'm not planning on shipping non-CE products to Europe, but I have seem A LOT of products that have the CE marking that there is NO WAY they are compliant. So, it makes me wonder what the consequences are if you are caught, how you could get caught, how much it would cost, and how you could report others. Thanks in advance for any replies and for not Flaming me. Brian This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
