How To Select The Correct Standards For Your Product’s Compliance Process

The product safety assessment requires the use of standards, and you need to know which standards to use and when to use them. Choosing the wrong standards can make your product’s CE marking process very complicated and prolong. Not to mention that if by some reason you manage to CE mark your product, it may not be 100 per cent safe for the end-user. For that reason, here is a list (in order of preference) that should help guide you in the process of selecting the right standards for your product’s CE compliance:

1. Use European harmonised standards (EN) whenever possible. You can find them published in the Official Journal;
2. In case that an ‘EN’ standard doesn’t exist, identify and use relevant IEC standards issued in the applicable CE Directive(s);
3. If you cannot use EN or IEC standards, then focus on using EU national standards;
4. If all the above listed couldn’t help you, and such standards don’t exist, then use codes of practice that are recognised within the European zone.
5. Use the digital tool "Harmonised standards finder" available in the compliance management system of Clever Compliance to find all standards relevant to your product in a few minutes.

The figure below illustrates the process of selecting the correct standards for your product’s CE compliance. Have a look at it to make sure you have understood your options, and you have no doubts what to do next.

Figure 2. How to choose the correct standards

Source (Tricker, 2004)

Reference list:

1. Tricker, Ray. ‘CE Conformity Marking and New Approach Directives’. (2004)