Does my product need the CE marking?

Does my product need the CE marking?

Your product must be CE marked if:

  • Your product falls within the scope of at least one EU directive/regulation that requires the CE marking
  • Your product European Economic Area or Turkey is placed on the market.
  • Whether your product is placed on the market or used exclusively by yourself makes no difference

If your product does not fall within the scope of harmonization regulations according to 1., then the CE marking is prohibited.

F&A

F&A

Does my product fall within the scope of a harmonisation regulation?

All products subject to at least one of the harmonisation regulations (EU directive or regulation) may only be placed on the market with CE marking. Currently, there are more than 20 EU directives and regulations requiring the CE marking [3]. Since January 2014, there are actually 25 different EU directives and - regulation requiring CE marking [4]. Simply put, most products fall within the scope of one of these regulations and are therefore subject to labelling. There are vertical regulations that apply to certain product families (for example, toys, pleasure boats, personal protective equipment) and horizontal regulations that more generally regulate certain aspects such as low-voltage devices, explosion-protected area [3].

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Do I market my product in the EEA or Turkey?

The CE marking is legally binding in all member states of the European Economic Area and Turkey. The European Economic Area includes the member states of the European Union (EU) and the member states of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). These include Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland. In all other countries of the world, the CE marking is of importance at most within the framework of contractual regulation [4].

In blue the member states of the European Union and in green the EFTA states without Switzerland [5].

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Do I market my product or do I use it myself?

The CE marking is of course necessary for products that you sell publicly and offer on the market (put on the market). However, this also applies if your product is only used for personal use [4]

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Is CE marking prohibited for my product if none of the above applies?

Therefore, distributors can not choose whether they want the product CE marking or not, but either CE marking is required by product safety law in conjunction with one or more EU directives or if it is not mandatory, it is automatically banned [1]. You expose yourself to at least 4 risks if you do not CE mark your product although this would be necessary or if you are not allowed to CE mark your product. A traffic ban by the supervisory authority is one of the smallest problems here.

in our article Liability, penalties and risks: Therefore, you should correctly carry out the conformity assessment and CE marking, we will detail you about the risks on.

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Source:

[1] Wolfram Pichler, EU Conformity Assessment in archt project phases directly to the goal, The recipe book for designers, product managers and CE coordinators, 2018

[2] Hans-Joachim Hess & Tom Gördes, product liability in Germany and Europe, the practical handbook for entrepreneurs and executives - with case studies, samples and checklists, second new edited edition, 2019

[3] Michael Loerzer, Peter Buck, Andreas Schwabedissen, Legally compliant marketing of products. In 10 steps to the declaration of conformity, 2nd updated and extended edition, Beuth

[4] Jörg Ertelt, basic knowledge CE marking, CE marking in Europea and the rest of the world: Who does the CE marking concern?

[5] Wikipedia, European Economic Area, Aug. 2020, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europ%C3%A4ischer_Wirtschaftsraum