Surveillance of electrical equipment
Purpose of surveillance of electrical equipment
OFCOM performs checks on electrical equipment placed on the market in Switzerland in order to verify that it complies with the requirements for electromagnetic compatibility. Among other things, this is to ensure that its use does not interfere with other equipment or installations.
Subsequent checks
To the extent that conformity is verified once the equipment is available on the market, OFCOM carries out spot checks or one-off checks.
Priorities for checks on electrical equipment
OFCOM focuses its market surveillance on problematic areas. In this way it makes efficient use of its resources, which do not extend to checking all the electrical equipment available on the market.
Measures to enforce the rules
When OFCOM suspects that a retailer is selling non-compliant electrical equipment, it goes to the premises to carry out a check and removes samples to examine their conformity. It then carries out a technical inspection. It also checks that the user instructions, the information on the equipment and the declaration of conformity comply with the legal provisions. In the event of a dispute, tests may be carried out by external laboratories.
The legal basis
The checking of the electromagnetic compatibility of electrical equipment is based on the Electrical Equipment Act and on the Ordinance on Electromagnetic Compatibility.