There are different types of compliance that can be relevant to a particular product.

Legal

Legislation for particular regions require Legal Compliance. For instance, the EU Low Voltage and EMC Directives apply to most electrical products.

The UK now has its own independent compliance scheme, i.e. UKCA Marking.

EU Member States’ transpose EU Directives into their own legislation, to allow common rules across the EU Single Market, and CE Marking.

There are several new pieces of recent or upcoming legislation: EU RED-Cyber, UK PSTI, EU CRA, EU GPSR, EU R2R, etc.

Of recent concern are post-BREXIT questions, where we can provide expert guidance on how to ensure your products remain compliant.

EMC/Radio – Covered by the EU Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive and UK Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations, it applies to most electrical equipment and forms part of the CE/UKCA Marking requirements.

Where equipment contains intentional transmitters (i.e. “radio” equipment, e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.), it falls under the EU Radio Equipment Directive and the UK Radio Equipment Regulations instead. This covers all EMC aspects too.

Progressively, there are more new Cyber-Security requirements. With the latest EU RED Amendment compliance required for EU / CE by 1st Aug 2025, and the current UK Product Security & Telecommunication Infrastructure Act. A new EU Cyber-Resilience Act will come into force in 2027.

Electrical Safety – Covered by the EU Low Voltage Directive (LVD) and UK Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations for electrical equipment operating 75-1500Vdc or 50-1000Vac. Forms part of the CE/UKCA Marking requirements

Eco-Design & Energy Labelling – The EU Eco-Design Directive is now replaced with the EU Eco-Design and Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). This will over time introduce new requirements for sustainability, and significant traceability requirememnts with the new Digital Product passport. Together with the EU Right-to-Repair Directive, will include repair requirements, .

In the mean-time, many of the existing requirements from the old EU Eco-Design Directive (aka “Energy-related Products or “ErP”) are carried over. Products ranging from External PSUs to Water Heaters have specific energy-related requirements. Again, this forms part of the CE/UKCA Marking requirements.

Additionally, some products require Energy Labelling, allowing consumers to make informed decisions about which products are energy-efficient, etc. New UK Energy Labels, initially mirroring the EU labels, are also required from 2021 within Great Britain.

RoHS – Covered by the EU RoHS Directive and the UK RoHS Regulations, and now applies to nearly all electrical products. It essentially covers restrictions of relatively small number of hazardous substances in electrical products (heavy metals and plasticisers, etc.). Again, this forms part of the CE/UKCA Marking requirements.

Other non-CE marking requirements –
– All products come under the EU REACH Regulations, and the equivalent UK REACH Regulations.
– All products used by Consumers or Workers fall under the EU General Product Safety Directive and the UK General Product Safety Regulations.

The new EU GPSR introduces wide-ranging requirements on consumer products and traceability and resposibility. You will require risk assessments for every consumer product.

Industry

Industry/Sector Compliance can be a pre-requisite to selling into certain sectors

Voluntary

A company can use a Voluntary Compliance to give a competitive advantage.