CE DOCUMENT WORKFLOW / 01
Verify the route before you judge the paperwork.
First establish the product rules and the required documents. A declaration, a test report and a notified body certificate serve different purposes. Compare each against the route that applies to your product.
Name the document you are actually asking for
Name the document you received. A CE declaration, test report and certificate serve different purposes. Record its issuer, product, standards and date.
The EU declaration of conformity is a short document drawn up and signed by the manufacturer. It identifies the product, lists the Union legislation claimed, lists the harmonised standards applied, and names the person who signed on the manufacturer’s behalf. An authorised representative may act within its mandate. A purchased third-party certificate does not replace this declaration.
A glossy document titled “CE Certificate” carrying a CE logo is not the declaration and is often not required at all. Ask for the declaration and the technical documentation by name.
Work out who has to sign it before asking the supplier for it
Establish your role under the applicable product rules. Selling under your own name or trade mark can make you responsible as the manufacturer. Identify who may sign for that manufacturer, including any authorised representative with a written mandate. Importers and distributors have separate document duties.
Ask for the evidence behind the declaration: product details, drawings, test results and standards used. Confirm the manufacturer, the signatory’s role and any mandate. A supplier’s unfamiliarity with the document does not settle who must sign it.
The manufacturer remains responsible for the declaration. Record the legal entity and the authority of the person signing for it.
Establish the conformity assessment route
Check the legislation for your product. The EMC Directive 2014/30/EU allows internal production control under Annex II, or EU-type examination followed by conformity to type under Annex III. The first route does not involve a notified body; the second does.
Using harmonised standards does not by itself select the route. Identify the applicable requirements and keep the assessment and technical file. An extra voluntary certificate cannot replace the required procedure. Other product legislation may require third-party assessment.
The route is set by the legislation covering the product, not by the country of manufacture. Establish the applicable acts for your product before deciding which documents are mandatory.
Company records do not verify a CE declaration
Use company records to check the named entity. The platform records below did not verify a CE declaration or product conformity.
On 21 August 2026, we queried qualification and licence records for 45 company codes selected for our NHTSA-based study. The records came from one licensed data source.
| Platform record | Companies | Relevant to a CE declaration? |
|---|---|---|
| Company identity | 45 selected codes | Check the holder and signatory separately |
| Administrative licences | 40 of 45 | Returned licences need scope and status checks |
| Qualification certificates | 36 of 45 | Returned certificates need issuer and scope checks |
| CE conformity documentation | Not assessed | — |
The query did not check the CE conformity file. A list of returned licences or certificates cannot establish whether your product meets EU requirements.
Match the legal name and credit code to the party named on the declaration. A trading company may carry manufacturer obligations for an own-brand product; its business label alone does not make its signature invalid. Check its role and authority.
So use the Chinese register for the signatory, and the notified body or accreditation body for the conformity route. Do not let a long Chinese qualification list stand in for either.
Verify any notified body claim at source
For a route that requires a notified body, check its designation for the relevant law. Search the European Commission’s NANDO database by its four-digit number. Check the listed law and product scope.
Take the number from the document and look it up. A missing result needs follow-up. A body listed only for unrelated legislation does not substantiate the claimed notified scope. Suppose the identification number is genuine but you still have doubts about a specific certificate. Contact the notified body through a channel you sourced yourself, not one printed on the document under review.
A notified body certificate does not normally carry the CE logo on the certificate itself. The CE marking belongs on the product, not on the paperwork about it.
Verify the laboratory and its accredited scope
Check the laboratory, the test method and the report’s link to your product. If accreditation is claimed or required, verify the ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation number and relevant scope. Self-assessment does not automatically require an accredited external laboratory.
For a lab in mainland China, start with the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment directory. Check the lab’s status and the tests listed in its scope. Match those tests to your report. Accreditation for one field does not cover every test.
A competent laboratory tested whatever was submitted to it. Nothing in the accreditation establishes that the sample came from your supplier’s production or matches your order.
Match the report to your product and to the standard version
Check the model or part number in the report. If it covers a family of products, ask for the basis of that grouping in the technical file. A shared circuit may help explain it. A supplier message alone does not prove that all models are covered.
Read the year printed next to each standard. Check the EU reference and any limits on its use. Harmonised standards support a presumption of conformity for the requirements they cover. Check the reference in the EU Official Journal. Read any restrictions and the date an old version stops giving that presumption. The standards body’s withdrawal date is a separate date.
Notified body status, laboratory accreditation and standard references all change. Keep the original check date and recheck the current status before relying on an older result.
DOCUMENT MATCH / 02
What each document can and cannot support
| Document | What it can support | What it does not establish |
|---|---|---|
| EU declaration of conformity | The signing party’s claim that the identified product meets the listed legislation | That the claim was independently assessed, or that current production still matches |
| Test report from an accredited laboratory | Results for the submitted sample against the named standard and version | That the sample came from your supplier’s production or matches your order |
| Notified body certificate | Third-party assessment within the scope printed on the certificate | Anything outside that scope, including other models or other legislation |
| “CE certificate” from an unaccredited issuer | Nothing in itself | Compliance, assessment, or that any testing took place |
| Supplier letter covering a product family | A statement of the grouping the supplier proposes | The technical justification, which belongs in the technical documentation |
METHOD AND LIMITATIONS / 03
What this guide is and is not
Use this guide to compare supplier documents with public sources. It is not legal advice and not a conformity assessment. Get support for the rules and route that apply to your product. This guide cannot make that decision for you.
| Frame | Companies | Scope carries 进出口 | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shandong excerpt | 136 | 109 | 80.1% |
| Anhui excerpt | 113 | 77 | 68.1% |
| Yunnan excerpt | 15 | 11 | 73.3% |
| All three | 264 | 197 | 74.6% |
Of these 264 selected names, 197 returned import-export wording. The sample source remains unconfirmed. This wording does not establish manufacturer status, how an order will be documented or CE conformity.
Save the source and date for each check. Write down what you found and what you could not check. A record can support a named fact. It cannot promise safe goods or a reliable supplier. It cannot show what a future shipment will contain.
PRIMARY SOURCES / 04
Official sources used for this guide
Declaration guidance and the EMC routes were reviewed on 8 September 2026. Other source links retain their 4 August 2026 review date. Re-open the source record before a material decision, because notified body scope, laboratory accreditation and harmonised standard references all change.
- Your Europe: Signing a declaration of conformityManufacturer responsibility and authorised representatives. Reviewed 8 September 2026.
- EMC Directive 2014/30/EUArticle 14 and Annexes II–III: alternative assessment routes.
- European Commission: notified-bodies database (NANDO, now in the Single Market Compliance Space)Official database of notified bodies, searchable by legislation, listing each body’s four-digit identification number and notified scope.
- European Commission: Notified bodies overviewExplains when third-party conformity assessment is required and what a notified body designation covers.
- European Commission: Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 2014/30/EUScope and obligations under the EMC Directive, used here as the worked example of a self-assessed route.
- European Commission: Harmonised standardsHow presumption of conformity arises from references published in the Official Journal, and how supersession is handled.
- China National Accreditation Service for Conformity AssessmentOfficial China accreditation body publishing accredited laboratories and the scope each is accredited for.
- National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity SystemOfficial China public-registration system used to match the legal entity named on the document to the entity on your contract. Step-by-step, including what a nil result means: how to search the registry.
COMMON QUESTIONS / 05
Keep the paperwork question separate from the supplier question
- My supplier does not know what a declaration of conformity is. Is that a red flag?
- Not on its own. Establish the responsible manufacturer and who may sign for it. Ask for the technical evidence and any representative’s written mandate. Unfamiliarity alone does not prove conformity or fraud.
- They sent a CE certificate. Is that the same thing?
- No. An extra certificate does not replace the required declaration or assessment route. The declaration plus the technical documentation is what carries the claim.
- How do I tell a real test report from one produced to look reassuring?
- Confirm the report with the laboratory through an independently sourced channel. Where accreditation is claimed or required, verify its number and the relevant scope. Check that your exact model appears, then check the standard version against current Official Journal references.
- The report covers a different model in the same series. Is that acceptable?
- Only if the grounds for grouping are argued in the technical documentation with the reasoning written down. The party signing the declaration is the party who has to defend that grouping.
- Am I being overly cautious asking for all this?
- Market surveillance obligations follow the party who placed the goods on the market. Where that is you, the documentation is what you would be asked to produce.