The rules for imposing penalties, including financial penalties, CE Marking.

In the European Union, every New Approach Directive and Regulation refers to infringements related to non-compliance with EU requirements and the affixing of the CE marking.

The rules for imposing penalties, including financial penalties, fall within the competence of national authorities and must therefore be determined by the national legislation of each country.

If a product does not have a CE marking and falls under the New Approach Directives or regulations governing CE marking, you have a serious problem. From a legal point of view, you have placed the product on the market illegally, and the limitation period is 10 years.

Any person who places on the European market, sells, distributes in any form or installs equipment which, despite complying with safety requirements, does not have the necessary CE marking, is not accompanied by technical documentation and a declaration of conformity, has an inappropriate conformity marking, has an incorrectly affixed CE marking or has limited visibility and legibility, shall be subject to administrative penalties in the form of fines determined by national legislation. Fines can reach tens of thousands of euros.

Anyone who advertises equipment that does not comply with the provisions of the Directives is subject to an administrative fine, a user (legal entity) who has modified CE-marked equipment in such a way that it does not comply with safety requirements, a person who has placed equipment in the European Union without CE marking, without indicating the name and address of the responsible person, if the manufacturer is not an EU resident, is subject to a fine of up to €50,000, depending on the country where the product is placed.

In addition, in some of the above violations, the supervisory authorities offer the violator to bring it into compliance with the requirements or withdraw it from the market; if the violator fails to comply with the requirements, an additional administrative sanction in the form of confiscation of the equipment is applied.

In serious cases, such as systematic disregard for safety rules, fines can reach hundreds of thousands of euros. These fines are imposed not only by market surveillance authorities, but can also lead to civil lawsuits. Some violations can result in criminal penalties.

Any person who, regardless of whether they are a party to the contract, has deceived or attempted to deceive the contracting party by any means or processes, even through a third party, may be punished by imprisonment or a fine. The absence or falsification of CE marking, unauthorized issuance or falsification of a conformity assessment document (certificate of conformity, declaration of conformity, test report) falls under this definition and is considered fraud in some countries.