Hello, I am interested in bringing some of my audio projects to market and am not sure what sort of certifcation is required to do so, is UL and CSA cert. required to sell electronics in North America? I see on many audio forums people sell tube amps and other projects they made and there is never any cert for those items, so when is it required? I have not found any definitive answers online so I hope maybe some of you folks might know.


Thanks for any input

 

Nope. In the USA it's buyer beware, though we have organizations like the BBB to help the consumer. A good example of the kinds of salesmen/saleswomen is Radio Shack, their people are usually totally clueless.

 

We (USA) also have an army of "plaintiff attorneys" who work on a contingency basis. If you don't want to lose your house and every penny you have plus go through h**l for 2+ years, you will need liability insurance. It ain't cheap. Morever, all of the disclaimers in the world won't be worth a wooden nickel, if/when you get sued.

If you are not in the US, the risk may be less.

John

 

I am located in Canada, and would be selling mainly online, I am talking about the type of certification given by underwriters lab and CSA for the products themselves, not so much personal training for sales.

 

I am located in Canada, and would be selling mainly online, I am talking about the type of certification given by underwriters lab and CSA for the products themselves, not so much personal training for sales.

U.L. or CSA approval is not required for products sold in the US. Some retailers will not carry certain product categories without some "official" approval, and some potential customers prefer products that claim to be approved, but such approval is often meaningless. I once worked for a company that was a market leader in a certain category; U.L. came to us for help in writing a standard for the category. They were largely clueless as to what such a standard should contain. For proof, just get a copy of a standard for any device that you personally know something about and read it. And, by the way, you'll have to pay U.L. for every copy of every standard you get from them. They are, after all, in it for the money.