CE compliance doc - We've temporarily hidden some of your listings

[travel-adventure-shop]

We sell sunglasses in UK only & we do not send Internationally Worldwide or EU . We buy from a major UK distributer, their brand is well recognized & they also supply many large retail chains. We stock over 500+ different styles but we have recently had many of our best sellers removed / hidden with a message asking for  Declaration of conformity &  Corresponding test reports (See message from ebay far below) .

We have received previous correspondence but have always called ebay CS who have advised us not to worry , the emails are not applicable to us . But of course the listings have now been removed.

I have spoken to our supplier & although reputable, it is extremely difficult & time consuming to get these reports for every single product . In some cases the reports do not exist because the Sunglasses are now discontinued or the factories themselves are certified rather than individual products. Apart from anything else, this is extremely time consuming for the supplier & as a small player , its difficult me to push hard for such detailed information on 500+ products. It would take them days or weeks to collate & at the moment I seem to be the only seller affected.

I have approached ebay CS many times for help with conflicting opinions & the just queries go to the `back office' but never resolved.

Many products being sold on ebay will be CE marked & it seems strange to me that we have been singled out even although we dont sell to EU . I cant imagine that every seller on ebay will be forced to provide this info for every product carrying a CE marking .

We are now getting stuck & cant see a solution to resolve this . Has anyone else had a similar experience ? Are we doing something wrong with our shipping setting & being flagged as an EU seller ? We have not uploaded an Economic Operator but when we try to do this , its also asking for the compliance documents - Is there a simple solution we are over looking ? 

Does anyone have any ideas, experience or advice on this  ?

Thank you .    

Message From ebay

Please submit the requested documents to make your listings visible again.

Hello ,

We haven’t received the CE compliance documents we requested.. To help reduce your risk of running into issues with these regulations, we’ve temporarily hidden the following listings until you can submit the required documents:
Item: 280842425698 Mens Shades Sunglasses Black
Reference ID: 2-196641860245

To fix this issue
Don't worry — we're here to help! The easiest way to solve this is to contact us for a new link so that you can submit the required documents. As a reminder, we need the following CE compliance documents for each affected listing:
Declaration of conformity, signed by the manufacturer or their authorised representative
Corresponding test reports, collated into a single PDF file

Please don’t relist your items until we’ve emailed to confirm that the documents meet requirements. Otherwise, we may also have to hide your relisted items. ​Learn more about when we remove or hide listings..

If you believe a mistake has been made, you can contact us in the next six months, and we will take another look.

More information and help
This policy helps sellers succeed by following important government regulations. These regulations are meant to protect consumers by ensuring product safety.

Learn more about Selling products with a CE symbol into Europe.

We appreciate your understanding. Thank you for being part of the eBay community.
Thanks,

eBay

Please don't reply to this message. It was sent from an address that doesn't accept incoming email.

[ett1954]

"We buy from a major UK distributer, their brand is well recognized & they also supply many large retail chains. We stock over 500+ different styles but we have recently had many of our best sellers removed / hidden with a message asking for  Declaration of conformity &  Corresponding test reports" - The UK continues to follow EU law in many areas; do sunglasses fall within one of these categories? 

"Are we doing something wrong with our shipping setting & being flagged as an EU seller ?" - If you ship to Northern Ireland this could be the inhibiting factor for your sales due to the requirements of the Windsor Agreement.

I presume you sell through a different account as this one has no listings visible making it difficult to be any more specific.

[ett1954]

Following from the above.  If you are buying your stock from an established distributor with a well known brand can they not provide you with the documentation you require?  If they are supplying large retail chains I would have thought they have probably been asked for this information by them should they also sell online or have branches in Northern Ireland.

[plpmr]

the first problem is that this account is only registered as a private seller.

[travel-adventure-shop]

Hi Ya - Thanks for looking - Our shop is under a different account - We have a Top Rated Business Account 👍 

[travel-adventure-shop]

Yes we are selling under a different account as Top Rated Business Sellers 👍 

[travel-adventure-shop]

Thanks for looking - but no - they have not been asked for this info before - not even the High Street shops have requested individual documentation & test reports. It can cost £5K per design & usually the factory is certified instead . 

[travel-adventure-shop]

I've just reposted under correct account 👍

[ett1954]

Would the original manufacturer be Chinese by chance?  I did read some months ago about the concern of some Chinese sunglasses coming into Europe without the required EU safety and quality standards but which were bearing a deceptively similar CE mark which some Chinese manufacturers were claiming meant 'made in China'.  The mark is used to mislead buyers about the product's compliance with EU standards.  It was stated that there would be a crackdown by the EU on such imports.

It might be worth checking the spectacles to check which CE mark your sunglasses have.  I have just checked several pairs of my reading glasses and my UK purchased examples all have a correct CE mark whilst a Russian made pair I have purchased at least 5 years ago has no mark at all.  See below:

Other than contacting the manufacturing facility to obtain the necessary documentation to satisfy eBay there would appear to be little you can do.

If you are selling into Northern Ireland it might be worth contacting eBay to see if blocking Northern Ireland sales would result in your restriction being lifted.  The difficulty is contacting an appropriate person at eBay who understands the issue, however, contacting by response to the message you received would probably be your best first attempt.

On a separate note I would urge anyone reading this thread to check any electrical items they purchase from China to confirm their conformity to EU safety requirements.  I purchased a USB adapter earlier this week which had a false ('China export') CE mark.

[travel-adventure-shop]

Thank you for taking time to reply - I think we have the correct CE markings 👍

Some correspondence does state this legislation applies to EU sellers only but the back office team dont seem to be accepting this . They state its good practice anyway . Before Brexit we did sell Internationally but have now blocked all international countries & turned off Global Shipping program but it doesn't help . I do wonder if blocking countries is enough & whether there is a more formal way to turn off all international sales options at higher level (through settings) rather than just blocking Countries but I cant find anything ?

The correct department at ebay is the `Trust & Safety Team' but the decisions & administration is done by back office team who you cant reach . The email doesnt accept replies & all the given help links just lead back to the normal help contact pages which doesnt cover this topic. I do have a ebay representative researching the issue for me but I dont hold much hope 🤞