Access Alert: Portugal imposes fines for non-compliance with type-approval requirements

Type approval (also known as homologation or certification) ensures product quality, safety, and interoperability, assuring consumers, businesses, and regulatory authorities that equipment meets established standards and any other relevant criteria.

The Radio Equipment Directive (RED Directive) of 2014 is a regulatory framework established by the European Union (EU) in 2014 to facilitate the free movement of radio equipment within the EU’s internal market while ensuring a high level of protection for users and the environment. Manufacturers are required to carry out a conformity assessment process to demonstrate that their radio equipment meets the essential requirements of the directive. This usually involves testing, documentation, and quality assurance measures to ensure compliance.

Once radio equipment has been assessed and found to comply with the requirements of the EU RED Directive, it must bear the CE marking, indicating that it conforms to EU regulations and can be legally placed on the market within the EU. This self-certification approach means manufacturers and companies looking to commercialise equipment do not need to undergo any certification or licensing process before the authorities. It relies on the manufacturer to ensure that technical standards are met. However, this also means that manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that parameters are actually adhered to and can be demonstrated to the authorities whenever requested.

The Portuguese telecommunications regulatory authority (ANACOM) recently imposed fines totalling more than half a million euros on two companies that could not provide copies of EU declarations of conformity, as well as for marketing radio equipment that did not comply with the RED Directive. Among other offences, the manufacturers failed to affix the equipment’s model name, batch, serial numbers, or any other identification element. They also failed to affix the manufacturer’s name and point of contact, the registered trademark, or safety instructions in Portuguese.

Globally, type-approval regulations vary considerably from one country to another, making the product certification process a complex task. While the CE marking can be accepted in many jurisdictions, this does not mean that it is automatically recognised as valid everywhere. In some cases, a declaration from the authority is still needed. In others, there is even the need for equipment to be retested. In the absence of harmonised international standards and requirements, manufacturers must research and familiarise themselves with the frequently changing domestic regulations of each country they wish to access.

If you need support complying with type-approval legislation or are interested in Access Partnership’s comprehensive regulatory type-approval database, please contact Chrystel Erotokritou, Compliance Manager, at [email protected] or Juliana Ramirez, Senior Manager, at [email protected].