EU EMC Directive in Practice Analysis of the Implementation of the EMC Directive after 2 Years by a European Competent Body

Reporting from the first year after the implementation of the EMC directive, we concluded, nothing is perfect at the beginning and regulations need time to be optimised regarding their actual procedures. We also pointed out "Besides competition the market policing plays an important role to ensure fair competition and reduced barriers to trade.” Although much progress has been made in the enforcement of the EMC in Germany (BAFT is now re-organised and called Reg. TP, which is reporting to the ministry of economic affairs since 1998-01-01). however the market place with the overwhelming majority of small and medium size companies still try to get a way doing nothing but affixing the CE mark and issuing a conformity declaration. Nobody says that testing is mandatory but how is a company going to prove due diligence in court without proper evidence to support their case. Prosecution in the UK (October 1997) already demonstrated to a computer assembler, CE + CE + CE is not CE, in spite of the fact that the new EMC guideline by the commission, June 1997, says so. If the testing of each individual CE marked component would have been done with due consideration of a later system integration, the legal formula could be correct.