EU User Manual Requirements: How to Create Compliant CE User Manuals

Are you interested in selling your product to the European market, legally? In this article, I will show you how to find the EU requirements for user manuals for your specific product group and how to create compliant user manuals for CE marking. 

In a step-by-step approach, I will instruct you in the proper ways to create a compliant user manual, specifically targeted to the European Union.

Follow these instructions to avoid legal pitfalls and to comply with EU requirements.

How to use the COMPLIAN-CE-Method to achieve EU compliance

Using the method, which I have named the COMPLIAN-CE-Method, will give you the following benefits:

• You will get an idea of how product compliance and product safety in the EU is organised.
• You will know how to find out which products are regulated in the EU.
• Within your company, you will be seen as an expert on European product legislation.
• You know how to identify the EU requirements for user manuals.
• You will know which standards to use for creating user instructions.
• You can develop manuals that are compliant for the European market.

Let’s break it all down into actionable steps.

The 4 steps to using the COMPLIAN-CE-Method to draw up EU compliant manuals

There are four steps that make up the COMPLIAN-CE-Method:

1. Determine the directives and the harmonised standards specific to the product.
2. Determine the EU requirements for user manuals as specified in the applicable, relevant CE marking product legislation.
3. Determine the appropriate harmonised standard to instruct users. The most common of these is: EN-IEC 82079-1.
4. Draw up the user manual (and other technical documentation) according to the EU requirements.

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