Yeah, I don’t entirely get the implications of what the British government is saying, but it sounds like this declaration is a lot less momentous than it initially sounded.
From looking at the page, it was already the case that all existing products on the market up to the end of 2024 with a requirement and a CE marking were grandfathered in anyway.
So they aren’t affected regardless.
In any cases for new products where the UKCA mark would be more-permissive than the CE mark, meeting the requirements for the CE mark would have been good enough anyway (though one would have to have actually gotten the UKCA mark). So the impact there would have been limited.
And in some (all?) cases, the UK isn’t planning on imposing tighter regulation for the UKCA mark than for the CE mark anyway in the near future.
So meeting the requirements for the CE mark would also be meeting the requirements for the UKCA mark as well.
And you can still get the UKCA mark. If the Brits adopt a more-permissive set of standards in any area then the EU, that’s sufficient to sell it in the UK, even where a mark is required.
And unlike UL in the US, CE and I assume UKCA doesn’t involve any actual independent testing. It’s just an assertion by the manufacturer that their product meets some set of standards. So if a manufacturer already knows that the standards for UKCA on a given product are no more stringent than CE, there isn’t much by way of costs involved – it’s not like getting both CE and UKCA, where UKCA is no more restrictive than CE, requires additional testing.
I think the whole idea of an independent compliance process and product label was to be able to define their own requirements and not having to take what the EU says. They would basically build on CE requirements and change things up a bit to make it more suitable to the UK market. But for manufacturers, this makes things super complicated
That is correct, but only if the prduct is subject to one more EU regulations that require CE. Many products don’t need CE
Yeah, I don’t entirely get the implications of what the British government is saying, but it sounds like this declaration is a lot less momentous than it initially sounded.
From looking at the page, it was already the case that all existing products on the market up to the end of 2024 with a requirement and a CE marking were grandfathered in anyway.
So they aren’t affected regardless.
In any cases for new products where the UKCA mark would be more-permissive than the CE mark, meeting the requirements for the CE mark would have been good enough anyway (though one would have to have actually gotten the UKCA mark). So the impact there would have been limited.
And in some (all?) cases, the UK isn’t planning on imposing tighter regulation for the UKCA mark than for the CE mark anyway in the near future.
So meeting the requirements for the CE mark would also be meeting the requirements for the UKCA mark as well.
And you can still get the UKCA mark. If the Brits adopt a more-permissive set of standards in any area then the EU, that’s sufficient to sell it in the UK, even where a mark is required.
So basically, unless all of (a) the specific area required a CE mark, (b) the product was first placed on the market in 2025 or later, © the UK chose to adopt more-restrictive standards than the EU, and (d) the product conformed to CE but not to more-restrictive UKCA requirements are true, the same product would have been sellable in the UK anyway. Unless all of those applied, the only issue that might have potentially come up would have been an extra label and any associated costs.
And unlike UL in the US, CE and I assume UKCA doesn’t involve any actual independent testing. It’s just an assertion by the manufacturer that their product meets some set of standards. So if a manufacturer already knows that the standards for UKCA on a given product are no more stringent than CE, there isn’t much by way of costs involved – it’s not like getting both CE and UKCA, where UKCA is no more restrictive than CE, requires additional testing.
I think the whole idea of an independent compliance process and product label was to be able to define their own requirements and not having to take what the EU says. They would basically build on CE requirements and change things up a bit to make it more suitable to the UK market. But for manufacturers, this makes things super complicated