UKCA or CE marking: selling to the EU from the UK
UKCA is not recognised in the EU and a UK Approved Body cannot certify for CE marking. What UK manufacturers need to sell in France and the EU.
Can you sell UKCA marked products in the EU?
No. The UKCA marking has no legal effect in the European Union, and a certificate issued by a UK Approved Body cannot support a CE marking. To sell in France or any other EU country, a product covered by EU harmonisation legislation needs a CE marking based on the EU conformity assessment procedure and, where that procedure requires a third party, a certificate from an EU notified body.
Updated: November 2026. Key provisions: Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008; Decision No 768/2008/EC (modules A, B and C); Article 7(3) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland; the Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/696); Articles L. 411-1, L. 441-1, L. 454-1, L. 521-1 and L. 521-7 of the French Consumer Code; French decrees No. 2010-166 (toys), No. 2015-1083 (low voltage) and No. 2015-1084 (electromagnetic compatibility).
This guide is for directors of UK manufacturers and brands that sell into France, and for their French subsidiaries, distributors and warehouses. Since 1 October 2024 your products can usually be sold in Great Britain with either a UKCA or a CE marking, so it is tempting to assume the two are interchangeable. They are not: the flexibility runs one way only. Victoris is a Paris law firm; UK law is mentioned only to explain your position, and nothing here is advice on English law. All examples are fictitious. If your French partner has received a request from the authorities, see our page for a lawyer for DGCCRF and DDPP inspections.
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Since 1 January 2021 the UK is a third country for CE marking
UKCA has no value under EU law
Article 30(4) of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 is short: "The CE marking shall be the only marking which attests the conformity of the product with the applicable requirements of the relevant Community harmonisation legislation providing for its affixing." Article 30(3) adds that by affixing it, the manufacturer "takes responsibility for the conformity of the product". That article was not amended when Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 replaced other parts of the 2008 Regulation.
UKCA belongs to UK law and the Great Britain market. For a French inspector, a toy or lamp carrying only UKCA simply lacks the required marking.
The European Commission set this out in its notice to stakeholders of 13 March 2020 on industrial products: "As of the end of the transition period, UK Notified Bodies will lose their status as EU Notified Bodies and will be removed from the Commission's information system on notified organisations (NANDO database)." The same notice states that UKAS certificates would no longer count as accreditation under Regulation 765/2008, and that a manufacturer or importer established in the UK would no longer be an economic operator established in the Union.
CE recognition in Great Britain is a one-way street
The UK chose the opposite approach for its own market. The Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/696), in force since 1 October 2024, allow CE marked products to continue to be placed on the Great Britain market in the sectors they cover; their explanatory note says they revoke the provisions that set an expiry date. The government guide "Placing UKCA or CE marked products on the market in Great Britain" (last updated 21 August 2026) also describes "Fast-Track UKCA", which lets you apply UKCA on the basis of recognised EU requirements and procedures.
Nothing equivalent exists in EU law. EU evidence can be used for the British market; British evidence cannot be used for the EU market. The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 gives the UK government a power to treat a UK requirement as met where an EU requirement is met. It is a power, not a guarantee, and the official Fast-Track guide itself describes a hypothetical future divergence in which a CE marked product could no longer be sold in Great Britain.
The UK government's sector table of 31 March 2026 lists the choice between UKCA and CE for toys, electrical equipment, electromagnetic compatibility, radio equipment, machinery, gas appliances, pressure equipment, pyrotechnics, measuring instruments and ecodesign, among others. Construction products, medical devices, marine equipment ("Red Ensign"), transportable pressure equipment ("Rho") and drones follow their own rules.
Is a UK Approved Body certificate valid in the EU?
What counts as an EU notified body
Where EU legislation requires third-party assessment, the third party must be a notified body. Under the reference provisions of Decision No 768/2008/EC, a conformity assessment body "shall be established under national law and have legal personality", applies for notification to the authority of the Member State where it is established, and receives an identification number from the Commission, which publishes the list of notified bodies and their tasks. That list is the NANDO database, now part of the Commission's Single Market Compliance Space.
French law spells it out. For toys, Article 10 of Decree No. 2010-166 of 22 February 2010 reserves the "CE type examination" to bodies accredited by COFRAC (the French accreditation body) and notified to the Commission, and to bodies designated by another EU Member State, a State party to the European Economic Area agreement, or Turkey. Article 17 of Decree No. 2015-1084 uses the same list for electromagnetic compatibility. The UK is in none of these categories.
What the UK government says about its own bodies
The UK government does not claim otherwise. Its Great Britain guide states that UK Approved Bodies, accredited by UKAS, "can only be used to certify products for UKCA marking". The Office for Product Safety and Standards guidance on electromagnetic compatibility in Northern Ireland is blunter: Approved Bodies "are not recognised by the EU (unless they have a presence in the EU) and cannot approve CE marking."
So a type-examination certificate from a UK Approved Body is not an EU-type examination certificate. The testing behind it may be excellent. But where EU law requires a notified body certificate, a product that relies only on the UK certificate has not gone through the required procedure.
Certification groups with entities on both sides
Several certification groups have a UK entity approved for UKCA and an entity established in a Member State and notified for CE. The certificate for the EU market must then be issued by the EU entity, under its own number; the shared group logo is not enough. Notified bodies may also work in non-EU countries, so a UK manufacturer can use an EU notified body for tests carried out in the UK.
Self-assessed products (module A) and products that need type examination
When no notified body is involved
Module A (internal production control) is the procedure by which the manufacturer draws up the technical documentation, controls production, affixes the CE marking and "ensures and declares on his sole responsibility" that the product meets the requirements. No notified body is involved, so there is no certificate to have recognised.
Low voltage electrical equipment works this way in France: Annex III of Decree No. 2015-1083 of 27 August 2015, which transposes Directive 2014/35/EU, describes only module A, and Article 13 says the EU declaration of conformity contains the elements of that module. For electromagnetic compatibility, Article 12 of Decree No. 2015-1084 lets the manufacturer choose module A or EU-type examination followed by conformity to type.
Take a fictitious Cardiff company that designs LED table lamps and had them tested by a laboratory that is also a UK Approved Body. For the EU it needs no notified body certificate: it needs complete technical documentation, an EU declaration of conformity referring to EU legislation, and a CE marking without a body number. The UK test report can sit in the technical file as evidence. It should never be presented as a "CE certificate", and the UK body's number has no place next to the CE marking.
When a third party must step in
Module B (type examination) is the procedure in which a notified body "examines the technical design of a product and verifies and attests" that it meets the requirements; module C then has the manufacturer declare that production conforms to the certified type. The application goes to "a single notified body of his choice".
For toys, Article 8 of Decree No. 2010-166 allows module A where the toy was made in accordance with harmonised standards covering all relevant safety requirements. Article 9 requires CE type examination where such standards do not exist, where the manufacturer has not applied them or has applied them only in part, where they were published with a restriction, or where the manufacturer considers that the toy needs third-party verification. The certificate must be reviewed at least every five years.
Imagine a fictitious Norwich company making wooden construction sets with magnetic parts. It departed from the harmonised standard on some points and obtained a type-examination certificate from a UK Approved Body. That certificate works for UKCA. For France it is of no use: the Article 9 examination was not carried out by a body qualified under Article 10, and the CE marking on those sets is irregular, however good the Norwich testing was.
Many UK files fail here: the procedures were chosen for UKCA and copied across to CE.
Transfer of the file or a new EU-type examination
In 2020 the Commission gave holders of UK notified body certificates two options: apply for a new certificate from an EU notified body, or transfer the file and certificate to an EU notified body under a contract between the manufacturer and both bodies. The transfer had to happen before the end of the transition period. The notice says nothing about later transfers.
Today the usual situation is different: the certificate was issued by a UK Approved Body for UKCA and was never an EU certificate, so there is nothing to transfer. You need a new examination by an EU notified body. The application goes to one body only, with a written statement that it has not been lodged elsewhere, and includes the technical documentation and test reports. Nothing prevents you from enclosing the UK reports; it is for the notified body, which takes responsibility for the certificate, to decide what it relies on and what it repeats.
Until the EU certificate is issued, the product cannot lawfully be placed on the EU market with a CE marking. Stock already in France raises a separate question, which depends on when it was placed on the market and on the documents available. Whether to suspend sales, withdraw batches or regularise during an inspection is a case-by-case decision to take with a French lawyer before replying in writing to the authorities.
Article 41 of the Withdrawal Agreement still protects individual products lawfully placed on the EU or UK market before the end of the transition period. The Commission stresses that it covers individual items, "but not to the type or series of products in a general manner", and that the operator bears the burden of proof. Six years on, this concerns old stock only.
Dual CE and UKCA marking: what is allowed
Two markings, two procedures
The UK guide confirms: "A product can have multiple different markings (including for example UKCA and CE), as long as it complies with relevant requirements, and the markings can be clearly seen." On the EU side, Article 30(5) of Regulation 765/2008 allows other markings "provided that the visibility, legibility and meaning of the CE marking is not thereby impaired", and prohibits markings likely to mislead third parties about the CE marking. The CE marking must be at least 5 mm high unless specific legislation says otherwise. Dual marking is only lawful if each marking rests on its own procedure.
Separate body numbers and separate declarations
Where a notified body is involved in the production control phase, the CE marking is followed by its identification number, allocated by the Commission. A UK Approved Body number belongs next to UKCA, never next to CE. A UK number behind the CE logo is one of the easiest inconsistencies for inspectors to spot: a NANDO search is enough.
EU law requires an EU declaration of conformity referring to EU legislation, the harmonised standards applied and, where relevant, the notified body. For electrical equipment, Article 13 of Decree No. 2015-1083 requires it to be drawn up in or translated into French for the French market. A UK Declaration of Conformity refers to UK legislation or recognised EU requirements; it does not replace the EU declaration.
Manufacturer and EU operator details
The manufacturer gives its name and address. The importer, the person established in the EU who places a product from a third country on the EU market, adds its own (for toys, Article 13(III) of Decree No. 2010-166). The Commission noted in 2020 that an EU distributor buying from the UK becomes an importer, with heavier obligations. Most of the products discussed here also need an economic operator established in the EU under Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020; a UK address does not meet that requirement. This is covered in a separate article of this series.
Where a French subsidiary stores and ships products designed by its UK parent, each company's role (manufacturer, importer, distributor, fulfilment provider) depends on who first places the product on the EU market, under whose name or brand, who owns the goods and who modifies them. Article 15 of Decree No. 2010-166, for example, treats an importer or distributor that sells a toy under its own name or brand as the manufacturer. The answer depends on the contracts and the actual flows.
Northern Ireland: CE, UKNI and the Windsor Framework
Under the Windsor Framework, formally adopted by the UK on 24 March 2023, "relevant EU rules relating to manufactured products apply in Northern Ireland". Products placed on the Northern Ireland market use the CE marking; UK guidance states they "cannot be UKCA marked".
Article 7(3) of the Protocol provides that certificates issued by bodies established in the UK keep their validity in Northern Ireland, and that any conformity marking affixed on that basis "shall be accompanied by the indication 'UK(NI)'". The UK government calls it the UKNI marking. It is never used alone: it accompanies the CE marking where a UK-based notified body carried out the third-party assessment.
The consequence for the EU market is clear. The Commission's 2020 notice says this marking "allows the identification of products which can be legally placed on the market in Northern Ireland, but not in the EU", and the OPSS guidance is just as clear: "Products with the UKNI marking cannot be placed on the EEA market." A fictitious Belfast maker of baby toys certified by a UK notified body and marked "CE UKNI" can sell in Belfast and, as qualifying Northern Ireland goods, in Great Britain. To sell in Dublin or Lyon it needs an EU notified body certificate and a plain CE marking.
What the DGCCRF or a DDPP checks
The DGCCRF (the French authority for competition, consumer affairs and fraud control) and its local offices, the DDPP (departmental directorates for the protection of populations), enforce product rules in France. Under Article L. 411-1 of the French Consumer Code, products must comply with the rules in force from their first placing on the market, and whoever first places them on the market must check compliance and, at the inspectors' request, show the checks carried out. For a UK-designed product, that means EU documents, not UKCA documents.
Requests usually land on the French company, which must obtain the documents from its UK parent quickly. Inspectors typically look at:
- the marking: CE graphics and size, any body number and where it sits, any stand-alone UKCA or UKNI;
- the EU declaration of conformity: EU legislation referred to, harmonised standards, notified body, language, signatory;
- the certificate, where required: the exact entity that issued it, its number and its NANDO notification for that task;
- the technical documentation, and whether the product sold matches the model certified;
- the names and addresses of the manufacturer, importer and EU operator, and safety information in French.
The labelling side of these checks is covered in our guide to French product and price labelling rules. If staff of the French company are later asked to attend an interview, read our article on why a DGCCRF or DDPP summons is not a formality.
Risks and penalties in France
Decision No 768/2008/EC treats as formal non-compliance a marking affixed in breach of the rules, a missing marking, a missing or incorrect declaration of conformity and incomplete technical documentation. None of this requires the product to be dangerous: a well-made toy certified by the wrong body is formally non-compliant.
- Injunction (Article L. 521-1 of the French Consumer Code): after an adversarial procedure, inspectors can order the business to comply within a set time, with a daily penalty of up to €3,000 and €300,000 in total.
- Measures on products (Article L. 521-7): where products do not comply with the rules in force, the authority can order by decree the suspension of their placing on the market, their withdrawal, recall and destruction.
- Criminal deception (tromperie, Articles L. 441-1 and L. 454-1): deceiving the buyer about the "contrôles effectués" (checks carried out) on a product is an offence punishable by three years' imprisonment and a €300,000 fine, multiplied by five for a company under Article 131-38 of the French Criminal Code (€1,500,000). Presenting a product as CE certified on the strength of a UK Approved Body certificate may be examined from this angle, depending on the facts and on intent.
Checklist before selling a UK-designed product in the EU
- List the EU legislation that applies to each product, not the UK Regulations.
- Identify the conformity assessment module used under each piece of legislation, and why.
- Where a third party is required, hold a certificate from an EU notified body listed in NANDO for that task, issued by the notified entity itself.
- Never present a UK Approved Body certificate as a CE certificate, anywhere.
- Put only the EU notified body number behind the CE marking.
- Keep a separate EU declaration of conformity, in French where the legislation requires it.
- Keep products marked UKNI or UK(NI) out of the EU supply chain.
- Show the manufacturer, the importer and the EU operator with a postal address in the EU.
- Provide safety information and instructions in French.
- Make sure the product sold matches the certified model, and keep the file for the period required (ten years under the texts cited here).
FAQ
Is UKCA marking accepted in the EU?
No. Under Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 the CE marking is the only marking that attests conformity with EU harmonisation legislation. A product carrying only UKCA is treated in France as lacking the required marking.
Can a UK Approved Body certify products for CE marking?
No. Since 1 January 2021 UK bodies are no longer EU notified bodies, and UK government guidance states that Approved Bodies can only certify for UKCA. If a certification group has a notified entity in a Member State, that entity must issue the EU certificate under its own number.
Can a product carry both CE and UKCA markings?
Yes, if each marking is based on its own procedure and the UKCA marking does not impair the visibility or meaning of the CE marking. Body numbers and declarations of conformity must stay separate.
Do I need a notified body to sell small electrical appliances in the EU?
Not for electrical safety: the French decree transposing the Low Voltage Directive provides only for internal production control (module A). Other legislation, such as electromagnetic compatibility, radio equipment or ecodesign, may apply to the same appliance with its own procedures.
Can CE UKNI marked products be sold in France?
No. The UKNI (UK(NI)) indication shows that a UK-based notified body certified the product for Northern Ireland. That certificate is valid in Northern Ireland only.
Is CE marking still accepted in Great Britain after Brexit?
For most industrial products, yes, under SI 2024/696, with no expiry date; some sectors have their own rules. This is a UK decision that the UK can change, and it gives no reciprocal right in the EU.
Conclusion
For the EU market, UKCA counts for nothing and a UK Approved Body certificate does not replace an EU notified body certificate. Where your product is self-assessed, the file can usually be put right on paper; where type examination is required, you need an EU notified body, time, and careful handling of the stock already in France. If your French subsidiary or distributor has received a request from the DGCCRF or a DDPP, Victoris can review your declarations, certificates and labelling and assist you with the authorities.
Article written by Guillaume Leclerc, lawyer at the Paris Bar, 34 avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris. Working languages: French and English.
