# CE marking — Certification marks and hazardous-area classifications: cross-market equivalences

For CE marking, market / system is EU; mandatory / voluntary is compulsory for most products covered by the New Approach Directives, verified against its source on 2026-08-11.

- **Designation:** CE marking _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Market / system:** EU _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Mandatory / voluntary:** compulsory for most products covered by the New Approach Directives _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Meaning:** CE marking is not a third-party approval. It is a manufacturer's self-declaration of conformity with applicable EU law _(per blog.promise.legal, not stated by the source above)_

## What the source says

> Do all products sold in EU require CE marking? No. CE marking is compulsory for most products covered by the New Approach Directives. Products not covered under a New Approach Directive do not require CE marking. It is illegal to place a CE mark on a product that is not covered by a directive.

## What blog.promise.legal says

> CE marking is not a third-party approval. It is a manufacturer's self-declaration of conformity with applicable EU law

Source: https://blog.promise.legal/fcc-certification-ce-marking-connected-devices-hardware-startups/

## Source

- https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-ce-marking
- https://blog.promise.legal/fcc-certification-ce-marking-connected-devices-hardware-startups/

Last verified: 2026-08-11. Review by: 2027-08-11.
Part of [Certification marks and hazardous-area classifications: cross-market equivalences](https://referencesource.org/certification-standards-equivalence/).