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As someone building hardware, unless it's like medical implants or aeroplanes or something you'll be aware that the E marking is self-certified for most things.
by tialaramex 1y ago
As someone building hardware, unless it's like medical implants or aeroplanes or something you'll be aware that the E marking is self-certified for most things. You could (it may not be cheaper, depending on industry and volume) do the work to check you're obeying these rules and affix your own certifications.
That's not true for a pacemaker or a jetliner, which will both need somebody else to certify them before they can be sold for purpose, but it is true if you make most ordinary "hardware".
The rationale is that most people don't want to make shoddy garbage and so they actually want to know what's expected of them and comply, and those who are maybe less than honest can be caught by the usual processes - after the fact admittedly but now they're guilty not of some hard to prove negligence or whatever but of specifically selling goods which wrongly claimed to meet the requirements.
My mother used to (decades ago) make stuffed animals for kids. Those needed E marks. One day a mother complained that her child had been injured by a toy, investigators show up, take similar animals for testing and... they're fine because of course they're fine mum had been following the EU self-certification process, testing materials, using proper tools etc. and so she knew it was done properly albeit in this particular case that wasn't enough - without any certification framework my guess is that's a nasty lawsuit and almost nothing she can do to defend herself.
- fxtentacle 1y agoI think you nicely illustrate why self-certification doesn’t work with Chinese companies. If your mother makes a mistake, she will get sued. But almost nobody in the EU who got hurt from a low quality product will be able to successfully sue one of those eight letter fake name companies with PO Box in China. That means local companies are forced to spend money to avoid product issues. But Chinese companies can get away with selling known faulty goods.
- seec 1y agoYep, this is distorted "competition". The actors are not playing by the same rules because one party isn't forced to follow them to the same extent and doesn't have a whole lot to lose if it doesn't follow them at all. The reality is that it isn't just a Temu problem, "free trade" with countries that do not have the same rules is necessarily imbalanced. It seems crazy to me that we impose very stringent rules inside the EU for many things and then allow anyone to import stuff from a faraway country that doesn't have to follow those rules. China has been cheating by definition for many years now and it's just now that people are reacting because it's now clear we have exported all the value creation process thanks to a lack of protection for inside actors...
- tialaramex 1y ago> then allow anyone to import stuff from a faraway country that doesn't have to follow those rules. Importers are also bound to the certification rules. For example when I buy the weird canned beverage from the Chinese restaurant in the middle of campus the can itself is of course intended for sale only in China so it's full of typical Chinese tropes - but the rules say you can't sell this if it doesn't obey rules so the importer sticks the minimum amount of extra info, in English, to every single can. This reminds me of Americans thinking exporters will pay their import tariffs. No, your rules only apply to your businesses, you might force foreign businesses to lower prices so as to remain competitive, but, you might just not.
- tremon 1y agoThe rationale is that most people don't want to make shoddy garbage and so they actually want to know what's expected of them and comply, and those who are maybe less than honest can be caught by the usual processes Don't be so naive. There's a reason why the term snake-oil salesman entered the common vocabulary. If there's money to be made, you'll find plenty of hucksters and grifters trying to make a quick buck without regard for any potential damage they cause. And most of the time they get away with it, even become president.