Post-Brexit, CE – UKCA certification in 2023

As we head towards the final months of 2022, our thoughts naturally turn to the festive joys of the winter season and of celebrating the new year. However, although the new year brings us new resolutions and potential new hobbies, it also brings the end of sole CE certification in the UK. If it was necessary for your products to bear CE marking, (Conformité Européenne), in the past, please be aware that from the new year, all necessary new products placed on the market in Great Britain will require a UKCA marking, (United Kingdom Conformity Assessment).

However, if your goods bear a CE marking they do not have to be remarked or disposed of but they do have to be sold in the UK before 11 pm on the 31st of December 2022. This doesn’t have to be a physical exchange of goods, an invoice to prove the sale of the goods will suffice.

If you look at the back of your mobile phone, there very well may be a ‘CE’ marking. This shows that the item in question is compliant with EU health, safety and environmental protection regulations. In short, it is a sign of quality there to assure the consumer.

A product bearing the United Kingdom Conformity Assessment marking verifies that it is compliant with the UKCA safety regulations. UKCA only applies to certain goods sold within England, Scotland and Wales. For instance, mobile phones, medical devices and toys. 

If your company sells products that require a UKCA or CE marking within the European Economic Area and European single market, those products will still legally require a CE marking to show their compliance with EU safety regulations. 

This doesn’t mean that the product must bear either a CE or a UKCA marking, it is possible for a product headed for the GB market to bear both markings as long as it has met the regulatory requirements of both certifications.

Goods intended to be sold within the EEA and the European Union Single Market must only bear CE marking.

You may be wondering why the UKCA only applies to certain goods sold within England, Scotland and Wales. This is due to the fact that Northern Ireland retains access to the EU single market and as such requires goods that are sold within the NI market to abide by EU safety regulations.

Therefore goods intended to be sold within Northern Ireland may bear either the CE marking or the CE and the UKNI marking. The UKNI marking is the version of UKCA intended for Northern Ireland and it cannot be used by itself, only alongside the CE marking.

Allow me to break it down for you:

  • UKCA – Goods can be placed on the market in Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales.
  • UKNI + CE – Goods can be placed on the market in Northern Ireland.
    • Goods can be placed on the market in Great Britain as long as they are Northern Ireland goods under ‘unfettered access’.
  • CE – Goods can be placed on the European Union single market.
    • Goods can be placed on the market in Northern Ireland.

You may need a certificate of free sale to sell certain goods subject to UKCA or CE marking in the European Union. It depends on the import laws of the specific country you’re selling to.

In that case, some companies may require an apostille for certificates of free sale. Increasingly, we see that more often than not post-Brexit, EU companies ask for a Hague apostille for documents from UK companies or for those documents to have been notarised by notary public. This extends to documents involved in the export of goods to the EU, such as certificates of origin and commercial invoices.

At Pardus Bloom, we can facilitate this process for you and take the hassle entirely out of your hands. We offer both standard and express services for notarisation and obtaining an apostille of the Hague, working alongside a notary public to ensure you a bespoke service tailored to your needs.

We will work with you every step of the way to guarantee you are kept up to date with the often lengthy progress of legalisation and do our utmost to make a complicated process simple.

We can have a document notarised and apostilled in the same day, provided the document arrive with us before 11 am, Monday to Friday.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone at 020 3839 9090, via WhatsApp and WeChat at +44 77195 13597 or email us at enquiries@pardusbloom.com

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