CE Mark

CE Marking Conformity Consultancy

Demonstrates product conformity so goods can be placed on the European market.

  • European Market Entry
  • Customs Rejection Avoided
  • Liability Position Strengthened
  • Premium Pricing Supported
Practice area
Medical Devices
Industries
5
Delivery
Onsite, remote, hybrid

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Why expert advice is worth having

Organisations rarely fail CE Mark because the standard is hard. They fail because the evidence does not match what the auditor asks for.

1

Findings get closed, not logged

Most CE Mark audits produce findings. What matters is whether they are closed with genuine corrective action or papered over, because the next auditor reads the last report first.

2

Experience across sectors

Having implemented CE Mark in very different operating environments, we can tell you quickly which of your worries are real and which are inherited from someone else's situation.

3

Surveillance never stops

A CE Mark certificate is the start of a three year cycle, not the end of a project. Building for the surveillance audits from day one costs far less than rebuilding before each one.

4

Auditors ask for particular evidence

Someone who has sat through hundreds of CE Mark audits knows which records get requested first and which answers collapse under a follow up question. That knowledge is only earned in the room.

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What CE Mark is worth to you

Certification is a commercial decision before it is a technical one. This is where the return usually shows up.

European Market Entry

Without the mark your product cannot lawfully be placed on the EU or EEA market, however good the product happens to be.

Customs Rejection Avoided

A complete technical file and declaration of conformity stops consignments being detained or returned at the European port of entry.

Liability Position Strengthened

Conformity evidence against the applicable directives is your first line of defence if a product causes harm somewhere in Europe.

Premium Pricing Supported

The mark reassures European buyers enough that they stop measuring you only against the cheapest uncertified quote on the table.

Industries where CE Mark applies

Open a sector to see every standard it is usually asked for.

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See the documentation

Look at how it is structured before you commit

A good CE Mark document set is smaller than most people expect and far better organised. Numbering that makes sense, revision control that holds, records that prove the system ran rather than that someone wrote a policy. See it for yourself in a short demo before you decide who to work with.

CE Mark in detail

A manufacturer's declaration, not a certificate someone hands you

CE marking is the manufacturer's own statement that a product meets the applicable European Union requirements for health, safety and environmental protection. It is a legal declaration, not an award. Which rules apply depends on the product: machinery, low voltage electrical, electromagnetic compatibility, radio equipment, toys, personal protective equipment, construction products, medical devices and pressure equipment among others, and many products fall under three or four at once. Getting that list wrong at the start is the most expensive mistake available.

Anyone placing a product on the European Economic Area market needs it, including Indian and Gulf manufacturers selling through distributors. Importers and authorised representatives carry duties too, and market surveillance authorities can ask any of them for the file. Buyers usually raise it first, in the form of a purchase order condition. For higher risk categories a notified body has to be involved. For everything else the responsibility sits squarely with the manufacturer, which is not always understood.

Finding your directives and closing the evidence gaps

The first task is classification. We identify every directive and regulation that catches the product, work down to the harmonised standards that give presumption of conformity, and confirm whether the conformity assessment route allows self declaration or requires a notified body. Only then does testing make sense. Ordering tests before classification is how companies end up with a thick report against the wrong standard. We also check whether the product as sold, with its accessories and embedded software, is the product you think you are declaring.

Next we build the file. Risk assessment against the essential requirements, design and manufacturing drawings, circuit diagrams and bills of material, test reports from a competent laboratory, and instructions and safety information in the languages of the countries you sell into. Labelling and marking are checked against the rules, including where the mark goes and what may sit beside it. Where a notified body is required, we prepare the submission and manage the technical questions that follow.

The technical file, the declaration and the market access it buys

You finish with a technical documentation file that can be handed to a market surveillance officer without a scramble, an EU declaration of conformity signed by someone with the authority to sign it, compliant labelling and user documentation, and a nominated authorised representative if you have no legal presence in Europe. The file has to stay available for years after the last unit ships, so we set up where it is stored and who updates it when the design changes.

The practical effect is that customs clearance and distributor onboarding stop being negotiations. Retail buyers who ask for the declaration get it the same day. Because the file forces you to state what the product is designed to do and under what conditions, warranty arguments get shorter. And when you later change a component or a supplier, you have a documented baseline to compare against instead of reconstructing history from memory and old emails.

The route to your CE Mark certificate

  1. 1Gap analysis
  2. 2Documentation
  3. 3Training
  4. 4Implementation
  5. 5Internal audits
  6. 6Closure of gaps
  7. 7Management review
  8. 8Certification audit
  9. 9Surveillance audits

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CE Mark questions we are asked most

What does CE Mark involve in practice?

In practice that means documented processes matching how you really work, records showing the system running, people trained on their part of it, and an internal audit completed before anyone external arrives.

How long does CE Mark take?

Plan on somewhere between eight and sixteen weeks. Organisations with existing procedures move faster; those starting from nothing spend most of the time on documentation and getting records actually made rather than promised.

Do you issue the CE Mark certificate yourselves?

No, and no consultant should. The certificate comes from an independent accredited certification body after their own audit. We prepare you to pass it and we are there on the day to close findings. That separation is exactly what makes the certificate worth holding.

How is CE Mark consultancy priced?

There is no useful list price for CE Mark. Two organisations of the same size can differ by a factor of three depending on existing documentation. A short scoping call gets you an accurate written number.

Which industries need CE Mark?

We map CE Mark to 5 sectors and it sits in our medical devices practice. Organisations usually arrive because a specific buyer, regulator or tender committee has asked. Tell us who is asking and we will confirm whether this is the standard that satisfies them.

Can you work remotely, or do you need to be on site?

We work onsite, remote or a mix. Multi site groups often use remote sessions for documentation and reserve site visits for the gap analysis and the audit itself, which keeps travel cost out of the fee.

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Insights, news and know-how

Guidance from our consultants, with anything about this standard first in each column.

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Blogs22

Working notes from the consultants.

News

What has changed, and when it bites.

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Articles

Longer pieces on one subject.

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Knowledge base

How things are actually done.

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