:: CE Marking ::

Often in a funny way we have heard people talking of EC as China export. Ignoring the legal aspects, have a look at the origins of this “joke”.

All the directives and the European regulations say clearly that only people who live within the EEC or has in this field a legal representative can affix the CE mark. It follows that who is outside of the EEC can not!

What did Chinese do, but in reality all those who are outside the EEC and even those that working within this want to eliminate their traceability?

They have affixed a CE mark, similar to that regular, but with minor changes; usually they have approached the C and the E in a way as to seem the trade mark applied by the European Community but in fact DIFFERING from it.

When in a possible and rare control some authorities said that that mark could not be affixed by the “Chinese” in turn they said it was not the EC mark, but the acronym of China export, sometimes succeeding in preventing proper sanctions.

The European Community has made clear in a clear way the shape and dimensions of the EC mark, and has warned anyone not to put brands that were similar to the correct one.

We remind you that the correct form of the EC mark is the one you can find in our pages, where the C and the E are derived from two circles one in the other and the minimum size in height must be 5 mm.

Moreover the general ignorance made that even products that certainly respect the standards and the directives are marked wrong!Attention: we are not talking about products of small companies, for example the USB Vodafone pins for surfing in the Internet have the wrong EC mark and we can assure that this is not an isolated case.

So between those who apply the counterfeit EC mark and those who apply the wrong EC mark on correct products, the confusion is total. Perhaps a solution would be the literal application of the law, that is a fine of 2,500 euro and the seizure of the products.

Certainly a drastic attitude for an error not too serious, but the question arises: is so difficult to carry out a correct logo? And it is possible to think that the multinationals are unable to control such a trivial thing?

The result of these process is to leave the consumer in doubt: is it printing error or China export?

We receive lots of requests for clarification on many points relating to the application of EC mark and from these often prevail the conviction that it is a burocratic act and the target of certain procedures are not clear.

We insist on the fundamental point from which depart all the directives and all the regulations related on the EC mark: this point is security.

When the legislator approves and publics directives and regulations, he has to ensure the security to the final user in connection to the technical progress and productive possibilities. This is why many rules and directives are continuously updated.

Therefore everyone is able to understand that are the requirements of security to determine the complexity of procedures to activate to apply the EC mark on the product, and not its commercial cost or its dissemination.

More a product may cause damage to the User, as in the case of machinery, more accurate must be the analysis of risk and much more complex the interventions to eliminate or reduce the dangers.

For these reasons and not for trade speculation, the internally assistance to apply the EC mark, may have extremely variable costs and move from a few hundred euro to a several thousand.

We said rhetorically that security has no price, but facts show that very often it does not have value and to ensure a minimum of security the CE mark can be given only after having followed a well defined path, which is not the burocratical compilation of modules, but the detailed assessment of characteristics and circumstances.

Therefore look at the EC mark with the aim of obtaining a safe products before that functional, because it is always better that a product stops working rather than those who use it.

A safe product is a guarantee not only for the users, but also for those who produce it and put it in trade, otherwise it becomes a time bomb, it is only a matter of time.