Selling products into the EU requires you to conform to certain standards and have all the relevant paperwork to prove this before your product can hit the shelves.
For some of those businesses who are not based within the EU, an Authorised Representative is seen as an essential addition to their working practices, as this gives them someone who understands all of the relevant requirements and can help you to meet them whilst acting as a point of contact for the authorities.
This can help you to concentrate on the things that you do best, safe in the knowledge that your product is being handled by an expert.
What is an Authorised Representative?
An Authorised Representative is anyone who has a written legal mandate to act on behalf of a non-European manufacturer to act on their behalf in regard to specific tasks. This is someone who can help them to navigate EU directives and regulations and represent them in a manner of ways.
They can be tasked with keeping the technical documentation and EU Declaration of Conformity and provide any surveillance or enforcement authorities with any of the information that they request in order to demonstrate the conformity of the product.
An Authorised Representative is needed for most manufactured goods if you wish to sell them into the EU, EEA, or Northern Ireland. Hand tools, medicines, food and motorcars being the main exceptions.
What companies require an EU Authorised Representative?
The following require an EU Authorised Representative:
- Non-EU cross border sellers who sell their products B2C in the EU
- Non-EU sellers shipping to consumers in the EU
- Non-EU manufacturers who sell directly to consumers in the EU
What companies do not require an EU Authorised Representative?
The following do not require an EU Authorised Representative:
- EU manufacturers
- EU importers
- Non-EU companies selling directly to businesses in the EU
Is an Authorised Representative mandatory?
In short, yes it is mandatory to have an authorised representative if your business is established outside the EU and sells their products directly to consumers. If you do not have an EU authorised representative address on your goods, the custom authorities have the right to seize and destroy your shipment as it will be deemed unsafe.
The products that require an Authorised Representative
The following product categories require an authorised representative:
- Construction
- PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
- Gas appliances
- Machinery
- Toys
- Energy-related
- Electrical
- Pyrotechnic
- Recreational craft
- Pressure vessels
- Radio equipment
- Pressure equipment
The risks of not appointing an Authorised Representative
If you do not appoint a suitable Authorised Representative, you not only risk legal consequences but also businesses disadvantages such as:
- A sales ban in the respective country or countries
- Local and EU-wide fines
- Recall obligations
- Costly inspections
- Damaged business image
What must an Authorised Representative complete?
An Authorised Representative can complete the following tasks on your behalf:
Verify documentation
An AR can verify that a EU declaration of conformity and technical documentation have been completed to the required standard.
Maintain documentation
Your AR will keep a record of your declaration of conformity and have this at their disposal should this be required by the market surveillance authorities. Usually, the AR will maintain your documents for 10 years.
Communicate
Your AR can communicate with the market surveillance authorities and provide the documents they require on your behalf. Additionally, in case of non-compliance, your AR can create a plan of corrective action and inform the market surveillance authorities of this.
The benefits of appointing an Authorised Representative
If you are selling goods on the EU or UK market without your own presents within those markets, you will have to appoint an ‘Economic Operator’ who is the contact point for Market Surveillance Authorities and is responsible for checking your compliance.
An Authorised Representative is one type of ‘Economic Operator’ and there are many benefits to appointing one over the other types of ‘economic Operators’.
- Direct access to selling into the EU, EEA and UK markets
- Point of contact for the market surveillance authorities and other regulatory authorities
- Full management of your technical documents and DoC
- Reduced risk of non-compliance and fines
- Experts in their field with years of experience working alongside different businesses and industries
- Ensure your technical file is up to scratch
- Importers and Distributors may not want responsibility
- Importers may require you to have a separate AR
- If you have many Importers/distributors only your AR’s name needs to go on the product
- AR’s can work with you in the event of an MSA action and advise on how to address any issues.
Anyone who actively sells a product in the UK, or the EU will need an economic operator and may find an Authorised Representative beneficial. Failure to have someone in this role could incur penalties such as fines and could even lead to the product being removed from sale.
If your business is using a separate importer, then you may want to employ an Authorised Representative to protect your business interests. As they will have access to the full technical file for your product and not your importer, you can avoid sharing your essential business knowledge.
The process of appointing an Authorised Representative
Here is an example process of appointing an Authorised Representative. Depending on your business’s requirements, your process may be more complex:
- Contact an EU Authorised Representative and provide them with the following information for each product that you intend on selling in the EU
- Product nameModel number
- Applied EU directives
- You’ll then receive a quotation from the Authorised Representative
- Once agreed, you’ll then sign a service agreement between your business and the Authorised Representative
- You will then be required to submit the required documentation to your new Authorised Representative
- The AR will review your documents and notify you if they require any additional information or changes
- Once documents have been verified, the AR’s name, address and contact information will be affixed to the product labelling and accompanying product documentation
The requirement of an Authorised Representative
An Authorised Representative can be any legal or natural person who is established in the EU. As they will act as a liaison between the manufacturer and the EU authorities, they will need a written mandate in order to act. They can then act as a contact point for companies who do not have a physical presence in the EU but want to sell into it.
Their main role is to act as your official representative, and they can handle the communication between your business and the authorities. They can also prepare and process all of your documentation, keeping it organised and supplying it to the right people when needed.
An Authorised Representative does more than administrative duties as they can be responsible with dealing with any issues that might arise and help you to deal with them with the minimum of disruption and stress.
This can be a massive help to businesses, as having someone on hand who is an expert in this field can save them massive amounts of time and money.
We can provide an Authorised Representative for any type or size of business. Our team of experts can help you to develop compliance solutions and reliable certification services to make sure that your product conforms with all of the relevant EU directives and has the paperwork to prove it.
Contact our Authorised Representatives
If you have any questions about our services, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our experts are on hand to guide you through the process, so have a chat with them about your needs.