Agency listings & electronics

[Optikon]

Does anyone know if it is illegal to sell consumer electronics if they do not have some minimum set of agency approvals? Let's not consider the FCC part 15 etc...I'm thinking along the lines of some motorized appliance that _could_ potentially be a safety hazard.

So, sure it is desirable to have these products approved via agencies (say U/L for safety etc..) but if it is NOT approved, is it illegal?

If it is illegal, what are the applicable laws?

Also, I am only wondering about USA sales/markets here..
I know all products do not necessarily get sufficient approvals but what's the deal in a nutshell?


Thanks!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Does anyone know if it is illegal to sell consumer electronics if they do not have some minimum set of agency approvals? Let's not consider the FCC part 15 etc...I'm thinking along the lines of some motorized appliance that _could_ potentially be a safety hazard.

So, sure it is desirable to have these products approved via agencies (say U/L for safety etc..) but if it is NOT approved, is it illegal?

If it is illegal, what are the applicable laws?

Also, I am only wondering about USA sales/markets here..
I know all products do not necessarily get sufficient approvals but what's the deal in a nutshell?

I don't have any idea on regulations in the USA, but I strongly suspect that you can't get an answer 'in a nutshell'.

From what I've seen of such legislation in the UK it's all very vague and confused, you would probably require specialist lawyers and expensive court cases to get a 'final' answer.

From what I can remember, in the UK the BEAB (British Electrotechnical Approvals Board) are the electrical standards body in the UK, and you can submit samples for approval (at great expense!), this allows you to put the BEAB sticker on the finished article. This isn't compulsory though, for example the now defunct Grundig company used to sell non-approved TV's in the UK - they were approved by the German authorities, but there's no way they would have passed the more stringent UK testing.

There's now another European sticker 'CE', which is to do with interference both to and from an electric item, this is entirely self regulated, and there's no specific testing standard in place. Certainly items from the Far East (and particularly China) will put stickers on manufactured goods on request, with no testing or attempt at compliance.

Your vague question doesn't help either, if you give exact details of what you're asking there's more chance someone might have some thoughts on the matter.

 

[zevon8]

Just to add a Canadian perspective, there are some approvals that can be done for certain products, devices, machines , etc. Here we have what is called a "special inspection" approval for equipment connected to mains voltage, domestic or industrial.

This is done for equipment that is low volume or custom made. An example would be a piece of test equipment or a machine that you built. You call the government electrical utility agency and they will have an inspector come and look at the equipment, verify it meets wiring code for grounding, fusing, cables used, etc, and that it is "safe" for an operator to use. They will attach a little orange sticker with a serial number to the equipment showing it has been approved by special inspection. It is the equivalent to submitting a sample and design to for approval of items mass produced, but done on a "piece by piece" basis. It's a very common way of getting approvals here, and you see it everyday on things including outdoor business signs, factory machinery, and smaller electrical items that are not sold in large volume.

At one place I worked we would have this done on a production run of say 200 items that were built only every now and then. It was cheaper and faster than all the "red-tape" to get a "CSA / UL " or equipment approval number for such small quantity.