UK Offence Report

Misuse of the CE marking etc

regulation 85(1) of The Electromagnetic Compatibility (Amendment) Regulations 1994

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

1 Any person who, in relation to any relevant apparatus, or any electrical apparatus other than relevant apparatus, affixes the CE marking or any other inscription or marking in contravention of regulation 33(5), (6) or (7) above, shall be guilty of an offence.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
contravening a requirement of the instrument
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 85(1)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person or any electrical apparatus other than relevant apparatus, affixes the CE marking or any other inscription or marking in contravention of regulation 33(5), (6) or (7) above.
  2. Doing the thing the provision prohibits under the Electromagnetic Compatibility (Amendment) Regulations 1994, whatever the reason for doing it.
  3. Where the requirement is a positive duty, letting the time for performing it pass without performing it.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated here: this instrument amends another one, and the penalty for the offence is in the instrument being amended.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
2 December 1994
In force from
30 December 1994
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations implement Council Directive 93/68/EEC (the “CE Marking Directive”) (regulation 4) as it amends Council Directive 89/336/EEC (the EMC Directive) by amending the Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 1992 (S. I. No. 2372; “the EMC Regulations”). Provision is made for the CE mark to continue to be applied until 31st December 1996 pursuant to the transitional period in Article 14.2 of the CE Marking Directive (regulation 5). These Regulations also make certain updating and other changes to the EMC Regulations (regulation 4(d) and 6). The principal changes are as follows— a provision is made to recognise the extension of the EMC Directive to the European Economic Area (regulation 3(d)); b the compliance notice procedure required by the CE Marking Directive in relation to the CE marking is also provided in relation to the CE mark (regulation 4(d)); c with regard to the disapplication of the EMC Directive to particular products pursuant to Article 2.2 consequent upon the adoption of product specific directives— i the disapplication is qualified in relation to medical devices and active implantable medical devices; the EMC Regulations are to apply until the transitional periods in the product specific directives expire, unless the manufacturer elects to apply the product specific directives; ii the EMC Regulations cease to apply to EMC requirements specific to satellite earth station equipment where the product specific directive applies; in addition, Part VI of the EMC Regulations ceases to apply to both telecommunications terminal equipment and satellite earth station equipment where the product specific directives apply (but Parts IV and V will apply instead to the EMC requirements which are not specific to the equipment concerned); d the modification of the requirements of the EMC Regulations provided for educational electronic equipment by regulation 8 of those Regulations is replaced by a modification for a new category of education and training equipment (regulation 7(c)); and e the details of standards will no longer have to be published in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes pursuant to regulation 39 of the EMC Regulations (regulation 7(f)); details will be published in other publications.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source