What is Product Compliance?As a product development business, developing product for commercial purposes, product compliance is an important activity that is necessary for you to be able to:
Product compliance relates to legal requirements, pertaining to a product, its packaging, labelling and user instructions, which must be met before a product can be placed on the market Each country, or in some cases each state, will have a set of regulatory requirements that you are required to meet, before you are legally allowed to place your product on the market. Those regulations may reference product standards or other regulations that you need to test your product to, or you need to meet the requirements of, in order to prove your compliance with the parent regulation.
Regulations and standards are regularly updated to reflect identified safety risks or evolving market expectations and often even existing product will need to be updated within a specific time frame to meet these new regulations. In addition to product compliance, you will be required to meet export requirements, transport requirements and import requirements for your target markets. These requirements are monitored and enforced by customs authorities and transport agencies. Sometimes there can be some overlap between Product compliance and the export/import or transportation requirements relating to your product, where for example, customs will check that your product is compliant. However, generally those import/export and transportation requirements are managed by your freight forwarder and/or customs broker. Product compliance is something that needs to be managed alongside your product development process. Waiting until the end of your product development process before ensuring you are addressing product compliance can often lead to costly design rework or a product compromise that you may not be 100% happy with. For example, the product compliance requirements may need you to put a warning label on your product. If you do not design this warning label into your product from the beginning, you may not have a suitable position allowed for it and therefore it may look like an after thought and spoil the look of your product. You will need to meet a number of physical and material requirements also which could be difficult to change if you find too late that the materials you have chosen or your part design leads to a non-compliance. Regulatory compliance is a broader term that refers to requirements that your business must meet (not just your products). If you need help with product compliance, we provide strategy and advice that is independent of any test laboratories, product development services or regulatory authorities. We support your journey as your needs and risk profile changes to ensure you can always confidently take exceptional products to global markets. |