In article ,
Andy Hall writes:
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.

Actually, illegal plugs is one of the things Trading Standards
are quite proactive on. It tends to be done at point of sale
rather than at import though.

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.

Plugs and Sockets Regs breaches accounted for 15 prosecutions
over the 5 year period up to 2003.

--
Andrew Gabriel