On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 22:00:27 GMT, Chip
wrote:

On 09 Aug 2005 21:52:20 GMT,it is alleged that
(Andrew Gabriel) spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

In article t,
Chip writes:
On 09 Aug 2005 20:21:59 GMT,it is alleged that
(Andrew Gabriel) spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

Not to mention the 6 months in prison and 5000 fine for anyone
importing them into the UK.

The world *finally* went crazy. 6months and a fine for a plug?

It's aimed at stopping importers from importing non-compliant
goods. It seems to work -- it's sufficiently rare to come
across a non-conforming 13A plug in the UK that most people
have never seen one at all.

The main market for non-conforming 13A plugs were cheap goods
made in China for Hong Kong residents to buy when visiting and
take home to Hong Kong. However, the Hong Kong authorities
have started becoming more strict with this insisting on full
BS1363 compliance, and it may be the market for non-conforming
13A plugs becomes too small to remain viable.

It was interesting to see how expensive that non-conforming
cordset was -- more expensive than conforming ones in the UK.

I am hoping the fine is for 'importing and offering for sale' rather
than aimed at the hapless tourist who obtains one while overseas for
whatever reason. (I think this is probably the case.)



The basis for this is the regulations surrounding the use of the CE
mark on many products, certainly electrical stuff.

The wording in the EU Directives is "placing on the market" and
applies to a manufacturer or representative such as a distributor.

It has been interpreted differently in different countries and the
policing done in different ways. The UK has taken the view that it
means importing and selling and is policed mainly by exception. This
has meant that Trading Standards shoulder most of the responsibility
for that and that it is mainly policing by exception. Thus, in
practice, import for own use does not trigger anything, and probably
the import and sale of the odd cord here and there. Other
countries have policing by Customs and that is a different
proposition.

In practice, in the UK, there have been few prosecutions related to
sale of products not conforming to standards. It is more likely that
these would happen in the event of something bad happening.



--

..andy

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