Manufacturing and selling electrical products
Whether you are the manufacturer, importer or distributor of electrical products, you are responsible for ensuring that the products offered for sale are safe and compliant.
Before an electrical product reaches the end user or consumer it may have changed hands multiple times. Product legislation divides businesses into four groups: manufacturers, manufacturers' representatives, importers and distributors. These are all so-called economic operators and each has its own role in ensuring that products meet the requirements. Each economic operator is also subject to requirements concerning traceability and prevention.
Your duty to provide notification
If you are an economic operator and discover that equipment you manufactured or sold has safety deficiencies, you are required to notify the National Electrical Safety Board in accordance with section 23 of the Swedish Product Safety Act. After receiving your notification, the authority verifies that the measures you intend to take are sufficient according to the risk assessment you performed.
If your product poses a serious risk of personal injury or material loss or damage, and it is being sold in more than one EU country, the National Electrical Safety Board issues something called a RAPEX alert on the web site of the European Commission.
RAPEX is an information and alert system in which EU countries inform each other about dangerous products that have either been withdrawn voluntarily or as a result of enforcement by authorities.
The National Electrical Safety Board's role
The National Electrical Safety Board is the market surveillance authority for electrical products. The authority's inspectors visit distributors and manufacturers to check and, if necessary, purchase potentially deficient products. We look at things like safety, CE marking and documentation.
