legalMy startup is getting ready to sell non-medical, industrial/commercial-use electro-mechanical devices. I can’t find any laws from the FTC, FCC, NIST or other state or federal agencies that govern what labeling must be present on the devices.
I assume that such laws exist given that virtually everything I look at has a serial number, country of origin, power requirement and manufacturer name. Any pointers to regulations?
The two important legal marks are FCC DoC (Federal Communications Commission Declaration of Conformity and Certification, for the US) and CE (Conformité Européenne, for the EU). I’m unaware of the specifics involved in getting either, but both are probably must-haves in your case:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_Declaration_of_Conformity
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CE_marking
(These govern the need to show voltage and such.)
Other countries go as far as simply piggybacking on either or both of the latter. When they do not, they tend to get arm-wrestled into accepting them as as is substitutes for their own markings through trade agreements. (Maybe check for China and Japan, but I’d be surprised if either requires anything extra.)
Best I’m aware, the “Made in…” mark is somewhat murkier (as in no real legal framework):
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_of_origin
(That basically covers the country of origin.)
Another mark that can matter is ISO certification. Getting it is basically a statement that you know what you’re doing and have procedures in place to show for it. It’s not required, but you can’t go wrong getting it if you’re dealing with clients who fuss about your quality control procedures or distributors who fuss about your ability to ship on time. At that point you’ll be happy to have thrown money at getting certified, you’ll say you’re ISO-whatever, and the conversation shifts to the next point:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000
(That is the most salient reason you see serial numbers.)
A last group that you may want to look into off the top of my head are Energy Star and the EU Energy label. The first is optional insofar as I’m aware, but the latter is mandatory for certain types of electronics in the EU. Also, certain rules apply with respect to using the recyclable symbol.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Star
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_energy_label
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_symbol
(These cover you being “Green”, energy efficient, and recyclable.)
With all that laid out (and the list is far from complete if you want more labels and marks), I’ll conclude by highlighting that international distributors will usually be able to tell you what might be required in this or that country if you ask them as a pre-flight check (e.g. “We’ve marks X, Y, and Z; do we need anything else for your country?”). Asking around won’t get you legal advice any more than this answer gives you any, of course, but you’ll get pointers on what you should look into.
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