Posted By Phil Brazier My company imports electrical equipment from a continental European company, the equipment arrives fitted with two pin plugs. My question is, does EU legislation require this company to supply us with UK style plugs and if so what is the main legislation? All thoughts on the subject welcome.

Posted By Sean Fraser This kind of issue arose some time back in the UK, when electrical goods were routinely sold without plugs being attached or even provided. This has now changed due to consumer pressure rather than law (as far as I am aware) and some manufacturers have gone as far providing moulded plugs where the only consumer/user interface is the fuse itself - so they reduced the possibility of incorrect wiring. EU integration and hramonisation has yet to project as far as electrical connections - it only extends to electrical supply (230 Vac). It would be political suicide for any member state to suggest everyone should use the same connections - might as well dictate that everyone drive on the same side of the road and manufacture cars accordingly. Since we seem to be the odd one out in both cases, you can see where that would lead . . . However, what I would suggest is find out if your manufacturer/supplier works to ISO9001:2000, the quality management systems Standard. Under clause 7.2.1 and 7.2.3 they are obliged to find out what your needs are as a customer and under 7.3.3 should ensure they are incorporated into the design features. Since the UK uses one standardised connection, perhaps you as a large customer or your representative trade federation/association could have a quite word in their shell-like and ask them to either attach the UK plug for goods destined to be delivered here OR just leave them off altogether. After all, you must be wasting the connections provided by cutting them off an replacing them (or are you using adaptors?). Anyway, this would be a saving for them as well.