Dear Sirs,

In the light of current events ZLS is informing about the following obligations which result from the legal regulationsfor the bodies in connection with the renewed granting of the GS quality mark.Those obligations of course also accordingly exist with regard to the renewed issuing of an EG/EU type examination certificate.

The GS quality mark is only allowed to be granted if the requirements according to § (article) 21 Abs. (paragraph) 1 Satz(clause) 1 No. 1 – 4 ProdSG (German Product Safety Act) are fulfilled. The GS body has to double-check and record this according to § 21 Abs. 1 Satz 2 ProdSG. Essential part of this review is carrying out a type examination.

For renewed granting of the GS quality mark the GS body has to open a new granting procedure with the aim to determine if the ready-to-use product is still fulfilling the requirements according to § 21 Abs. 1 Satz 1 No. 1 – 4 ProdSG. Also in this case among other things a type examination is to be carried out by the GS body. 

If the applicant declares to the GS body that his product has not changed since the first-time granting, the GS body is nevertheless obligated to carry out a review concerning the requirements according to § 21 Abs. 1 Ziffer 1 – 4 ProdSG. In this process, already existing findings, test results or valuations can be used by the GS body for the renewed granting procedure. It is however not possible to only refer to those existing data for a renewed granting of the GS quality mark. In any case it must be checked by the GS body that no changes both to the testing specification as well as to the product itself were made. For assessment of the product this means that physical tests are necessary in order to make a statement that the requirements according to § 21 Abs. 1 Ziffer 1 – 4 ProdSG are still fulfilled. The GS body defines the selection of those tests according to its own.

All results in the test report which refer to already existing data have to be clearly indicated.

As already mentioned in the beginning, those remarks also correspondingly apply to the renewed issuing of an EG/EU type examination certification. This means that a notified body in such cases must not only trust statements of the manufacturer but must carefully check that no changes were made both to the test specifications as well as to the product. This includes performing those physical tests which are necessary to make a conformity statement within the relevant directive.

Best regards,

Dipl.-Ing. (Univ.) Hans-Georg Niedermeyer
Head of ZLS