CE marking is a declaration, not a sticker
Buyers from outside Europe often read CE marking as an approval issued to a product. It is closer to the opposite: under the Construction Products Regulation — Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 — a construction product covered by a harmonised standard must carry CE marking and be accompanied by a Declaration of Performance. The DoP is the document that actually states the performance. The CE mark is the manufacturer’s claim that the declaration was drawn up and the obligations behind it were met.
That distinction decides what you ask for. Asking a supplier for "the CE certificate" gets you a piece of paper. Asking for the Declaration of Performance, for the model you are buying, gets you the thing the market actually requires.
For a WC pan, the harmonised standard is EN 997
Ce marking applies when a harmonised standard covers the product, and the standard for WC pans and WC suites with an integral trap is EN 997. Where it applies, the manufacturer draws up a DoP against that standard — the CE requirements and the performance characteristics are set out in its Annex ZA — and affixes the CE marking. For a ceramic WC that is the route; bathroom products that fall outside a harmonised standard are a different conversation again.
Who signs it, and who carries the liability
The manufacturer draws up the DoP and is responsible for what it says. If an importer places the product on the market under its own name or brand, it takes on the manufacturer’s obligations for that product — including the declaration. That is worth settling before the artwork is printed, because it decides whose name goes on the document and who answers for it if a project asks a question three years later.
Do not assume a sibling model is covered
A declaration is written against a product, not against a photograph. A model that looks identical to a declared one can sit outside the scope if it uses a different flush valve, trapway or fitting. Check the model code against the document rather than against the catalogue picture, and where a range is declared, ask what the range boundary actually is.
Where our range stands
Our products for the EU market are marked accordingly, and the CE certificate is available for our wall-hung toilets — it is in our downloads section and free to download. Tell us the model codes and the destination market, and we will confirm which documents cover them before sampling, the same way we do for the Australian and Saudi markets.
What belongs in the order specification
- The Declaration of Performance for each model, named by model code
- Whether the CE marking is applied by us or by you as the importer
- The testing route behind the declaration, and who holds the file
- A document folder per model per market — an EU file and a Saudi file are not interchangeable
A European file is useful evidence in the Gulf and in Australia, but it does not replace the PCoC or the WaterMark certificate. Keep each market’s approval in its own folder from the first order and the question never becomes urgent.
Related on this site
- Our European Union market file
- Our CE certificate for wall-hung toilets
- The Australian equivalent: WaterMark and WELS
- Catalogue, drawings and the certificate set
- Ask which models the CE file covers