Despite the fact that the CE mark has been around for more than 15 years, its meaning and importance are often not well understood by those who wish to market their products in Europe, as well as the consumers and end users of such products. In this article, we review the CE marking requirements that apply to many products sold in Europe, and we set the CE rules in the context of other European product labelling requirements.

Imagine this – your company has developed a new product using cutting-edge technology. You now wish to market the product in Europe. Production is running at full steam, marketing arrangements are made, and distributors and other business partners in Europe are engaged. At the eleventh hour before product launch, one of your distributors rings you and says: “Your products aren’t CE marked. Are you sure that they don’t have to be CE marked?”

If this scenario sounds familiar to you, you are not alone. All businesses wishing to sell products in the European market face the inevitable question regarding the CE mark, the passport many different types of products need to obtain before they can be marketed in Europe.