CE Marking

Definition

CE marking is the process whereby a manufacturer verifies and documents that a product has been designed to be safe and manufactured consistently to this safe specification, and therefore complies with the applicable legislation.

The list of product categories that require CE marking is available here. It is illegal to affix CE marks to products where legislation does not require it.

This factsheet is therefore only applicable to those products that must be CE marked. Information about this can be found in the applicable legislation – please check

Key steps

CE marking requires six actions in the following order to be undertaken by the product manufacturer:

• Identify applicable legislation and the harmonised standards.
• Verify that the product design specification complies with all health and safety requirements as well as other requirements laid down in the legislation
• Consistently manufacture to this specification
• Compile a technical documentation that evidences this.
• Draw up an EU Declaration of Conformity referencing the evidence of design and production control.
• Affix the CE mark to the product.

The activities to be undertaken in each of these stages are described below.

Identify applicable legislation

• Go to the list of products for which CE marking is required
• Identify all legal requirements that are relevant for your product.

Verify product compliance

• Identify the health and safety requirements and other legal requirements in the applicable legislation.
• Identify harmonised standards that may apply to the product.
• Undertake a pre-market risk management to check that the risks related to all hazards with the product have been dealt with.
• Test the product to verify that the risks have been appropriately reduced.

Compile the technical documentation

• Compile the technical documents that constitute the technical documentation, e.g. description of the product, construction drawings, test reports, etc. (See separate factsheet on the technical documentation)

Draw up an EU Declaration of Conformity

• Draw up and sign the EU Declaration of Conformity. Remember to include all other required information (identification of manufacturer, product name, model name, etc.).
• Affix the CE mark to the product The CE mark should preferably be affixed to the product. If this is impossible because of the size of the product, it can be placed on the product’s packaging or in a document accompanying the product.
• The CE mark should have a minimum height of 5 mm (see below).

Further guidance

• Guidance on CE marking for professionals
• The “Blue Guide” on the implementation of EU product rules 2022
• The format of CE mark is found in Commission regulation (EC) 765/2008, Annex II
• Current consolidated version
• Drawings of the CE mark in GIF, PNG, JPG, AI and EPS format can be downloaded from the European Commission’s website

Related topics

• Conformity assessment
• Declaration of conformity
• EU consumer protection
• EU market surveillance
• Product safety checklist
• Recall procedures
• Risk management
• Safety Gate / RAPEX
• Selling online
• Technical documentation
• Testing
• Using a third party

You may also visit the SPEAC ACADEMY to learn more about the EU Safety requirements.