From: Bill Bryans
' IBM Canada Ltd., Program Manager, National Requirements
'
Subject: Is Product Certification a Legal Requirement?
Gene, I have to agree with Ron. In Canada, you legally can not market an
electrical product without Provincial approvals. This can be achieved in
2 ways: The approvals, in the form of a certification, can come from a
Nationally recognized agency such as CSA, or from the Power Utility of
the Province you intend to place the product.
Certification in itself provides zero protection from liability suits,
but will assist with due diligence via an objective second opinion that
your product meets the intent of the standard.
Regards, Bill Bryans
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From: gpan...@tuvps.com
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Ron,
You add an excellent point that I missed in my response. I would add one
thing--safety certification has never been mandatory, only voluntary. There
may have been governmental organizations that didn't want to back your
product via a national approval (implicit would then be the idea that they
checked everything) unless you had certification. In this sense, the
approval organization was acting like your distributor would. But it has
not been part of the law to get TUV, BSI, or any other certification marks
in Europe. In the US of course, the same applies except for products used
in the workplace.
Hence, the real question is: if so many companies did not legally require
certification (clear non-telecom products stand out), why have they been
getting it for 21 years. Answers could be four-eyes principle, liability
backing, marketing reasons, etc. But these are all market issues--not legal
ones.
Due diligence is the heart of any companies approach and even a
certification body cannot offset that. Further, I would think none would
want to have their marks on products that come from companies with poor due
diligence.
Gene Panger
TUV Product Service
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Original Text
>From fot...@ccmailpc.ctron.com, on 29-4-96 8:59 AM:
To: <emc-p...@ieee.org>, "Victor L. Boersma" <102126....@compuserve.com>
Hello Vic,
The way you will protect yourself is DUE DILIGENCE. As a matter of
fact, that is really the way you protected yourself in the past. The
only reason you were getting certifications is that they were legally
required of you. The certification house would not have accepted
liability in the event of a tragedy; your company would. In this
regard, nothing has changed. You need to make sure you are
comfortable with the interpretation (of the standard) that you use and
then act on it in good conscience.
Incidentally, if someone gets hurt, you will be sued. The only
question that will need to be answered is did you play by the intent
of the rules or did you circumvent the rules...
Ron Fotino
Cabletron Systems, Inc.
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Dumb Question
Author: "Victor L. Boersma" <102126....@compuserve.com> at !INTERNET
List-Post: emc-pstc@listserv.ieee.org
Date: 4/27/96 8:14 PM
In the grey past, we obtained certification/listing from our
friendly certification houses. If we thought that something
was wrong with the application of an old standard to a new product,
we would have a heart-to-heart talk with our certification
organization. If we had a good, solid and valid argument, chances
were that our certification organization would agree and certify us
to the spirit of the standard. In addition, it was likely that our
certification organization would propose changes to the standard, to
rectify the anomaly.
In the brave new world of "Declaration of Conformity", the only
time you have to explain yourself is, when you get caught.
The question will be whether the regulatory police will consist of
intelligent people who think like you, or will they be dummies who
think unlike you ?
If they think unlike you, your organization may be in for
extraordinarily expensive times, where the fact that they don't
have you on the payroll any longer, will not offset the costs.
Question:
How are we going to best protect our owners and ourselves in this new
environment ????
Ciao,
Vic Boersma
