1. Market Surveillance of Conformity Marks
Presented by: Pierre SELVA
WSC- CA Workshop - December 1st & 2nd 2015, Geneva
Thank you to have the opportunity to make this presentation in the frame of the ECS General meeting.
This presentation aims to emphasize the threat of counterfeited and unauthorized use of conformity marks on PRODUCTS, CERTIFICATES and DOCUMENTATION, not only in Europe, but also at the worldwide scale. It does not address the fair competition between different conformity marks coming or not from outside of Europe.
It’ s a manufacturer view, but we believe this threat could have strong impact on your business.
The main interest of this presentation is to raise awareness on this issue, and to propose some ways of solutions.

2. Agenda Conformity Mark Values Recent cases Disturbing cases
Risks and consequences
What to do ?
Some possible solutions
Conclusions
In order to spend around 20 minutes together, I propose the following agenda.
I also propose to make the whole presentation, then if you have questions, to spend time at the end to exchange opinions.

3. Certification is a product characteristic
It’s a Marketing Strategic Tool and Investment

4. Conformity Marks Values
Safety
Added values
Confidence
Credibility
Lasting investment to convince
Conformity marks are in the heart of our business.
Why do we make business with them :
- Because our end customers are requesting them
- Because some regulations are requesting them
- Because we, manufacturers, want to make differentiation
Conformity marks bring some values that are of huge importance :
- Safety of the products
- Specifics requirements not covered by safety standards, such as the production follow up or third party expertise, for example and sometime other values. This is extremely important to differentiate from other conformity assessment schemes.
- It allows the development of confidence between economic operators
- Thanks to the role of the third party, it increase the credibility of our statements
- And at least, it’s a lasting investment from manufacturers to convince our customers
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5. Falsified CB Certificates Prosthesis mamaire Case
Recent cases
Falsified CB Certificates
Counterfeited Mark
Prosthesis mamaire Case
 General Mix up
Some recent cases appear on the market.
IEC wrong CB Certificates have been found.
Conformity marks are misused. Some of Certification bodies are publishing the list of what they found and inform the users thanks to their website.
The PIP medical scandal in France, involving one certification body (I don’t make here any judgement on the CB in cause, as the affair is not closed and no clear responsibility has been determined, except the one of the manufacturer).
All these facts lead to a general mix up to our customers, and mainly the unskilled people.
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6. Certified, but non compliant products found on market
Disturbing Cases
Certified, but non compliant products found on market
Golden sample ?
Unfair Manufacturer ?
Wrong certificates ?
“Bogus” certificates ?
During some analysis performed by different organizations, we found products bearing conformity marks, but clearly non compliant to safety standards requirements.
What are the possible causes of this non compliance :
- Manufacturer gave specially prepared products, able to pass the certification tests, then they are producing different products.
- Manufacturers are unfair and don’t respect the certification rules
- Certificates are wrong. They are made form previous ones, and updated by the economic operator, or they are counterfeited.
- and at least, we can also imagine that some certificates are bogus ones, and, maybe, due to commercial or financial pressure they are delivered without strong verifications
- or any other reason ….
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7. Risks and Consequences
More and more cases
Loss of image
Loss of confidence
Loss of credibility
No more differentiation
Loss of business
The more we found cases, the less the business will grow !
With loss of image, confidence and credibility, the conformity marks will not be anymore requested by customers, and also by manufacturers.
Without differentiation value, there will be no more interest to use them, and the whole business of conformity marks will decrease.
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8. What to do ? Nothing  Individual battles  Collective actions 
So, what could be the answer in front of this situation ?
First answer could be to say : this threat is only manufacturer point of view. CBs don’t believe in you and in your analysis and we do nothing.
In this case, we believe CBs will loose business.
Second possible answer : each CB is taking its responsibility and it’s organizing its own battle. We believe that in this case only few of CBs will succeed, then most of CBs will “disappear”. It’s not what we expect as manufacturers. We strongly prefer to work with several CB having high level of expertise.
Third possible way, and it’s the one we use as manufacturer when we want to participate to market surveillance actions : COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION.
We believe it’s the only mean to join forces, to be able to act with authorities and to defend our whole business, not only one manufacturer.
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9. Possible Solutions
Reinforce controls Collective Market Surveillance structure Commitments, Code of conduct
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10. Conclusions Conformity marks and Certification Business are at risk.
It’s time to react !
Manufacturers can participate and support.
Some manufacturers actions are taking place today :
Market Surveillance Support Initiative in Europe
BEAMA Anti Counterfeiting Working Group at International level
ASEC in France
And many others in all areas
All of them are mainly focused on counterfeited and unfair or hazardous products. When a wrong conformity mark only is detected, without counterfeit of product brand name, we believe it’s the role of Certification Body to react.
Of course, as this issue is part of our market problem, we are ready to support CBs actions, but we cannot lead them.
Confidential Property of Schneider Electric |

11. THANK YOU.