Re: [PSES] Branding Products and EU Decision 768 NLF
EU Decision 768 does not apply to products or manufacturers – it is was an instruction to change Directives and I would be careful with citing and relying on the paragraphs following “whereas:” in Directives as the obligations are in the Articles of the Directives and not in the preamble: And in the article of a NLF aligned Directive you find: ‘manufacturer’ means any natural or legal person who manufactures radio equipment or has radio equipment designed or manufactured, and markets that equipment under his name or trade mark; The Blue Guide (which is a guide) says The manufacturer is any natural or legal person who is responsible for designing or manufacturing a product and places it on the market under his own name or trademark (91). The definition contains two cumulative conditions: the person has to manufacture (or have a product manufactured) and to market the product under his own name or trademark. So, if the product is marketed under another person's name or trademark, this person will be considered as the manufacturer. Regards Charlie Charlie Blackham Sulis Consultants Ltd Tel: +44 (0)7946 624317 Web: https://sulisconsultants.com/ Registered in England and Wales, number 05466247 From: Richard Nute Sent: 15 August 2019 23:31 To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: Re: [PSES] Branding Products and EU Decision 768 NLF Hi The Other Brian: “Company-A's name and address is on the Nameplate Label on the back of the Widget. Company-A handles everything including the Conformity Assessment, Generating the EU-DoC, Applying the CE marking, audits, inspections, etc..” All of the other markings and stuff are just fluff. They don’t count for compliance. They don’t have to be there for compliance. The Widget “belongs” to Company A despite the Company B markings and stuff. "Any economic operator that either places a product on the market under his own name or trademark should be considered to be the manufacturer and should assume the obligations of the manufacturer." The key word is “should,” which is NOT “must.” In this case, Company B, while placing the Widget on the market is NOT the manufacturer. Company A has the obligations of the manufacturer. “A customer purchasing the Widget from Company-B asked for a copy of the EU-DoC. The customer would not accept the EU-DoC because it was generated by Company-A.” Call your customer’s attention to Company A’s nameplate. The nameplate is the only valid data; what Company B marks on the Widget (including the Company B name), from a regulatory point of view, is simply fluff. I suppose you could ask Company A to include a statement on the DoC to the effect that the Widget is also marketed as a Company B Widget. Best regards, Rich - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org>> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe)<http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html> List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas mailto:sdoug...@ieee.org>> Mike Cantwell mailto:mcantw...@ieee.org>> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher mailto:j.bac...@ieee.org>> David Heald mailto:dhe...@gmail.com>> - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas Mike Cantwell For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: David Heald:
Re: [PSES] Branding Products and EU Decision 768 NLF
Hi The Other Brian: “Company-A's name and address is on the Nameplate Label on the back of the Widget. Company-A handles everything including the Conformity Assessment, Generating the EU-DoC, Applying the CE marking, audits, inspections, etc..” All of the other markings and stuff are just fluff. They don’t count for compliance. They don’t have to be there for compliance. The Widget “belongs” to Company A despite the Company B markings and stuff. "Any economic operator that either places a product on the market under his own name or trademark should be considered to be the manufacturer and should assume the obligations of the manufacturer." The key word is “should,” which is NOT “must.” In this case, Company B, while placing the Widget on the market is NOT the manufacturer. Company A has the obligations of the manufacturer. “A customer purchasing the Widget from Company-B asked for a copy of the EU-DoC. The customer would not accept the EU-DoC because it was generated by Company-A.” Call your customer’s attention to Company A’s nameplate. The nameplate is the only valid data; what Company B marks on the Widget (including the Company B name), from a regulatory point of view, is simply fluff. I suppose you could ask Company A to include a statement on the DoC to the effect that the Widget is also marketed as a Company B Widget. Best regards, Rich - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas Mike Cantwell For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: David Heald:
Re: [PSES] Branding Products and EU Decision 768 NLF
Brian — I call this “private labeling.” The EU and presumably the customer want a match between the company name on the product and company name on the declaration, hence the expectation that they be the same. The Blue Guide often has additional detailed guidance on things like this. Mike Sherman Graco Inc. Sent from XFINITY Connect Mobile App -- Original Message -- From: Brian Kunde To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Sent: August 15, 2019 at 3:43 PM Subject: [PSES] Branding Products and EU Decision 768 NLF I'm not a Marketing person, so I do not know the official term for it, but there is a method of doing business where one company buy/sells a product made by another company marked with the brand name and trademark of the marketing company.I've always called this "Branding", but like I said it may officially be called something else.Here is the situation in more detail: Company-A designs and manufactures a great Electronic Widget and will produce the Widget in your company's color (Company-B), your company's name on the manual,and with your company's name and trademark on the front of the Widget.Company-A's name and address is on the Nameplate Label on the back of the Widget. Company-A handles everything including the Conformity Assessment, Generating the EU-DoC, Applying the CE marking, audits, inspections, etc.. All you have to do is market and sell it. Here is the Problem:According to the EU Decision 768 document also known as the New Legislative Format, paragraph 26, "Any economic operator that either places a product on themarket under his own name or trademark should be considered to be themanufacturerand should assume the obligations of the manufacturer." Company-B accepts the responsibility and liability of the Widget but there are many tasks called out that the "Manufacturer" must do that Company-B cannot do, such as the conformity assessment. Paragraph 21 states, "The manufacturer, having detailed knowledge of the designand production process, is best placed to carry out the complete conformity assessment procedure. Conformity assessment should therefore remain the obligation of the manufacturer alone." Company-B can be responsible for the conformity assessment, but they cannot carry out the procedure because they do not possess the required detailed knowledge of the design or production process. A customer purchasing the Widget from Company-B asked for a copy of the EU-DoC. The customer would not accept the EU-DoC because it was generated by Company-A.The customer insisted that Company-B generates the EU-DoC because per the NLF, Company-B is the "Manufacturer" and so all documentation should be in the letterhead of Company-B.Does Company-B have the credentials necessary to generate the DoC? Must the DoC be in the letterhead of Company-B or should the customer accept the DoC generated by Company-A? Thanks to all. The Other Brian - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to<emc-p...@ieee.org(mailto:emc-p...@ieee.org)> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at:http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site athttp://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website:http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions:http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe)(http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html) List rules:http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas<sdoug...@ieee.org(mailto:sdoug...@ieee.org)> Mike Cantwell<mcantw...@ieee.org(mailto:mcantw...@ieee.org)> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher<j.bac...@ieee.org(mailto:j.bac...@ieee.org)> David Heald<dhe...@gmail.com(mailto:dhe...@gmail.com)> - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas Mike Cantwell For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: David Heald:
[PSES] Branding Products and EU Decision 768 NLF
I'm not a Marketing person, so I do not know the official term for it, but there is a method of doing business where one company buy/sells a product made by another company marked with the brand name and trademark of the marketing company. I've always called this "Branding", but like I said it may officially be called something else. Here is the situation in more detail: Company-A designs and manufactures a great Electronic Widget and will produce the Widget in your company's color (Company-B), your company's name on the manual, and with your company's name and trademark on the front of the Widget. Company-A's name and address is on the Nameplate Label on the back of the Widget. Company-A handles everything including the Conformity Assessment, Generating the EU-DoC, Applying the CE marking, audits, inspections, etc.. All you have to do is market and sell it. Here is the Problem: According to the EU Decision 768 document also known as the New Legislative Format, paragraph 26, "Any economic operator that either places a product on the market under his own name or trademark should be considered to be the *manufacturer *and should assume the obligations of the manufacturer." Company-B accepts the responsibility and liability of the Widget but there are many tasks called out that the "Manufacturer" must do that Company-B cannot do, such as the conformity assessment. Paragraph 21 states, "The manufacturer, having detailed knowledge of the design and production process, is best placed to carry out the complete conformity assessment procedure. Conformity assessment should therefore remain the obligation of the manufacturer alone." Company-B can be responsible for the conformity assessment, but they cannot carry out the procedure because they do not possess the required detailed knowledge of the design or production process. A customer purchasing the Widget from Company-B asked for a copy of the EU-DoC. The customer would not accept the EU-DoC because it was generated by Company-A. The customer insisted that Company-B generates the EU-DoC because per the NLF, Company-B is the "Manufacturer" and so all documentation should be in the letterhead of Company-B. Does Company-B have the credentials necessary to generate the DoC? Must the DoC be in the letterhead of Company-B or should the customer accept the DoC generated by Company-A? Thanks to all. The Other Brian - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas Mike Cantwell For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: David Heald:
