Small. low-power and low-cost floodlights are widely used by consumers. The traditional halogen lamp based floodlight has practically completely been replaced by models using LED technology. This was the reason for the European market surveillance authorities to start a joined action investigating the compliance of LED floodlights with both the EMC and the Low Voltage Directive. Based on a risk-based approach they selected samples from the market. In order to identify LED floodlights with a high probability of being non-compliant they looked at:
- new (“private label”) brands
- customer complaints
- inadequate or suspicious labelling/markings
- previous Market Surveillance data / Rapex notifications
- price and appearance
The result showed that the majority of the investigated products was not compliant. Out of the 85 investigated LED Floodlights:
- 66 had defects that could endanger the safety
- 50 did not comply with the EMC requirements
- only 49 complied with all the administrative requirements
When you combine all these results only 2 out of the total of 90 products complied with all the assessed requirements. Note that this does not include legislation such as RoHS, REACh, Eco-Design. This is an incredible negative result.
Prevention at virtually no cost
The key question for all of you involved in retail and trade of these, and other, non-food consumer goods, is if this can be prevented at virtually no cost. The answer is yes. How?
Ask the right questions
It doesn’t start with the product, it starts with the documentation. If your supplier is not able to answer questions you will:
- fail to comply with administrative requirements, which is a formal non-compliance
- find it difficult if not impossible to verify via a pre-shipment inspection if the units produced are the same as those originally approved
We enable you to generate a comprehensive requirement checklist for any non-food consumer product targeted for the European Union and share that with your supplier, all within a few minutes. 24/7. The cost per unit is negligible.
No answer? Walk away from the deal. There are sufficient others that can and will supply you.
Prevent that your products are “low hanging fruit” for authorities
We always mention it during our risk assessment training sessions and here it is proven again. Products with inadequate or suspicious labelling/markings are likely to be non-compliant. Why? Because product compliance requires a serious approach and attention to detail. Sloppy markings are a sign that this is lacking.
Use ProductIP to take control
Our 13.000+ international users in retail, manufacturing and trade of non-food consumer goods prove that this approach work. They use our platform to find out what the relevant requirements are. They do that very fast and at negligible cost. They co-operate with their suppliers via our web interface and let them do most of the administrative work. At the same time, they keep track of progress and get insight into the performance of the supply base. Their technical files for products with and without CE Declarations are in good order. They also use our label/packaging/manual checking service to ensure that these are all in line with the requirements. They are able to demonstrate their compliance efforts to customers, authorities and other stakeholders.
