What is an EU Authorized Representative? EU Authorized Representative Review

1. EU Representative

In order to better protect EU consumers and the environment, EU law requires that, in order to achieve product traceability, products with the CE mark placed on the EU market by manufacturers must be marked with the manufacturer's name and contact address; if the manufacturer is from a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA) (including EU and EFTA), its products must also be marked with the name and contact address of the manufacturer and the manufacturer's EU authorized representative. For example:

In order to improve the overall market supervision efficiency, the European Commission will be responsible for checking the market supervision efficiency and require all member states to meet the minimum legal requirements and strengthen cooperation and communication. In addition, the European Commission will cooperate with customs and relevant stakeholders (manufacturers, EU authorized representatives, importers, distributors) to establish a product traceability system. The European Commission will first focus on high-risk areas, such as medical devices.

II. Definition and Responsibilities

European Authorised Representative or European Authorized Representative refers to a natural or legal person explicitly designated by a manufacturer outside the European Economic Area (EEA) (including EU and EFTA). This natural or legal person can represent the manufacturer outside the EEA to perform specific duties required by the relevant EU directives and laws on behalf of the manufacturer.

The New Approach Directive requires that the EU Authorized Representative must be located in the European Economic Area and have a commercial registered address (some countries also require the EU Authorized Representative to have a company registration number or EU VAT registration number);

The governments and competent authorities of EEA member states can directly contact the EU authorized representative at any time to verify whether the manufacturer outside the EEA has fulfilled the responsibilities required by the relevant EU directives and laws;

The manufacturer’s general commercial representative (e.g. authorised distributor), whether or not located in the EEA, should not be confused with the EU authorised representative required by the New Approach Directives;

Although the EU Authorized Representative can perform specific duties required of the manufacturer by the relevant EU directives and laws on behalf of the manufacturer outside the EEA, the manufacturer is still the party with the main responsibility.

Without the manufacturer's consent, the EU authorized representative cannot unilaterally change products manufactured by manufacturers outside the EEA, even if it is to make the illegal products comply with the requirements of the EU product directive.

Usage of Chinese translation

The standard term used for EU Authorized Representative in the English version of the EU product directive is (British English) European Authorised Representative. Because most of the manufacturers who need to designate EU Authorized Representatives are located outside the EU, especially American manufacturers, American manufacturers prefer to write the EU Authorized Representative in American English as: European Authorized Representative.

Since Chinese is not an official language of the EU, there is no corresponding official term in Chinese for European Authorised Representative. In Chinese translation, European Authorised Representative or European Authorized Representative is usually translated as: EU Authorized Representative. It can also be translated as: EU Authorized Agent, European Authorized Representative, European Authorized Agent, etc. It is usually abbreviated as: EU Representative or European Representative. It can also be used as: EU Agent, European Representative, European Agent, etc. In Taiwan, European Authorised Representative or European Representative is also used, although the European Community (EC-European Community) was replaced by the European Union (EU-European Union) as early as 1993.

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