Over on Reddit, there is a post called “Client complaining about our own branding on our own custom products, how do you handle white labelling? [link]”, I assumed that they were building a product from scratch and since they were placing a product on the market, they had done their own certification for CE / UKCA marking… however it looks like they were trying to make use of sub-components certification.
We have a business where we make custom technical products, usually focussed on lighting and automation.
Our products go out with metal branding on featuring our logo, usually just a small plate/logo with our company name, sometimes with a URL or QR code.
We have one particular customer who keeps complaining that we ship them our products with our company name on.
How do you handle clients who want to use your bespoke items as if they have made them in house?
Charge a premium for our logos to not be on them? A % per order?
Charge them to brand the items up with their own logos?
Reading through the responses, this does not seem to hold as ‘RuleOfThePixel’ clarifies.
No, the products are usually an assembly of certified hardware.
So, it might be something like a control panel, with a mini PC, power supply, router and other automation hardware inside.
Or it could be a ‘black box’ with a raspberry pi/other electronics inside.
We don’t have a contract as we don’t make 1 specific product. Each order is customised. A client will approach us with a specific request and we build a solution for it.
All of our enclosures/boxes have our branding on. As, its our products? I don’t think its unusual to buy products from a brand, and those products to come with that brands name on them.
So my question is, brands who have clients who want to white label their products, how do you handle it? Charge them an additional fee? Tell them no and to remove the branding or re house the products in their own enclosures, which if it involved taking the equipment apart would invalidate our warranty?
FYI,, im not supplying anything on a white label basis. I am supplying our products with our branding on as usual and have a client complaining about it.
It looks like they are a system integrator rather than an OEM, and unfortunately, are trying to rely on the CE marking of the individual components and haven’t undergone their own certification, or even properly self-certified the new product.
Systems Integration and CE Certification…
The new product is more than the sum of its parts. CE + CE + CE does not equal CE, and there is no legal case to argue otherwise. While this applies to all directives, it is explicitly stated clearly in the official guide to the EMC Directive 2004/108/EC, specifically § 1.2.2 Combination of finished appliance (systems):
A combination of several finished appliances which is made commercially available as a single functional unit intended for the end-user is considered to be [an] apparatus. […] All provisions of the EMC Directive, as defined for apparatus, apply to the combination as a whole.
The guide continues:
It should be noted that combining two or more CE marked finished appliances does not automatically produce a “compliant” system…
Combined system is treated as a new product
As with a completely new product, the technical documentation must include a justification as to how the end product complies with current requirements. This should alos include a risk analysis should be performed for the product to see if it is compliant when launched to market… this should include how similiar the product is to others that you produce, it is up to the manufacture, or the manufacturer’s representative to perform these checks.
If the combined device has not been CE marked as a new product, manufacturers risk fines, with the assembled product being withdrawn from the market. And importantly, safety issues may be discovered upon further testing, which means that the assembled product may potentially either harm people or cause material damage.
Reddit and CE marking
I don’t know who RuleOfThePixel is, or what their product is; however, in their own descriptions of the products, “it might be something like a control panel, with a mini PC, power supply, router and other automation hardware inside. Or it could be a ‘black box’ with a Raspberry Pi/other electronics inside.” Given this information, I don’t know how much of a Technical Construction file they have produced, or even if they are producing a Declaration of Conformity (DoC) for each product. A loophole they may be able to use is that the devices they are producing are not being placed on the market as such, since each one is a bespoke product they are commissioned to make. But I would be very wary; if moving into making multiples of each device without going for testing and generating a DoC.
CE Testing and Certification
As normal, I would recommend reaching out to either Dave Cass at Cass Industries or James Pawson of Unit 3 Compliance for consultancy.
