A product sold in Europe has to meet European requirements, and proving it means test reports from a competent laboratory plus a technical file. Many importers treat this as paperwork to sort out at the end. The ones who have been caught once treat it as an engineering constraint to settle at the start, because a product that fails a test after production has to be redesigned, retooled and remade.
Why doing it in China works
- The major international testing laboratories have full facilities in the region. The reports they issue are the same reports.
- Samples travel across a city instead of across the world: a retest after a correction takes days, not weeks.
- The engineer who has to change the design is in the same time zone as the laboratory that rejected it.
- Cost is materially lower, which matters when a product needs several standards rather than one.
Three mistakes that recur
- Accepting the factory's existing certificate. It covers their product, in their configuration. Change the housing, the power supply or the firmware and it may no longer apply to yours.
- Testing the golden sample instead of production. A hand-finished sample passes tests that a production unit fails. Test what will actually ship.
- Assuming the report is the whole obligation. For many categories the file, the declaration and a responsible person established in the EU are also required — the test is one piece.
Verify the certificate itself
A PDF of a certificate proves nothing on its own. Certification bodies publish registers; the certificate number, the named holder and the scope should all be checkable there. Doing that once, for each supplier, is fifteen minutes that has saved importers a great deal.
Applicable standards depend on the product category and on the market, and they change. Confirm the current requirements for your specific product with a conformity specialist before committing to a test plan.