The China Compulsory Certificate mark (中国强制性产品认证, lit.'China mandatory product certification'), commonly known as CCC Mark (三C认证), is a compulsory safety mark for many products imported, sold or used in the Chinese market. It was implemented on May 1, 2002, and became fully effective on August 1, 2003.[1]
It is the result of the integration of China's two previous compulsory inspection systems, namely CCIB (Safety Mark, introduced in 1989 and required for products in 47 product categories) and CCEE (also known as Great Wall Mark,[citation needed] for electrical commodities in 7 product categories), into a single procedure.[2] The CCC Mark is intended to be a minimum quality assurance for safety and health, not an optimal or high standard.
Applicable products
The CCC Mark is required for both Chinese-manufactured and foreign-imported products; the certification process involves the Guobiao standards (or just GB standards).
Circuit switches, electric devices for protection or connection
Low-voltage Electrical Apparatus
Low power motors
Electric tools
Welding machines
Household and similar electrical appliances
Audio and video apparatus (not including the audio apparatus for broadcasting service and automobiles)
Information technology equipment
Lighting apparatus (not including the lighting apparatus with the voltage lower than 36V)
Motor vehicles and safety accessories
Motor vehicle Tires
Safety Glasses
Agricultural Machinery
Telecommunication Terminal Products
Fire Fighting Equipment
Safety Protection Products
Wireless LAN products
Decoration Materials
Toys
Implementation rules
Apart from the GB standard, the implementation rules are the second important component that form the basis of CCC certification. The implementation rules determine the process of CCC certification and list the mandatory products for the certification. Based on many regulatory amendments, it is important to get the latest version of the implementation rules before starting the certification process.[4]
In 2014, a comprehensive regulatory amendment of the Implementation Rules had taken place. The major changes are:
CSP (China Certification Center for Security and Protection) certifies security products, forensic technology and products for road safety
CSCG (China Safety Global Certification Centre) for safety glass
CEMC (China Certification Centre for Electromagnetic Compatibility) all electronic products[8]
Follow-up certification
The CCC certificate and the Permission of Printing, which allows the manufacturer to mark the CCC-certified product with the CCC Mark, must be renewed annually in order to keep the validity of the certificate. The renewal can only be done through a follow-up certification. Part of the follow-up certification is a one-day factory audit.
IT security products
On April 27, 2009, China announced 13 categories of the IT security sector products that must conform to the additional authority that was newly bestowed on the CCC (China Compulsory Certificate), and this requirement was to be put into effect on May 1, 2009. In view of the security measures taken by China, there was a seemingly high likelihood that they would request the full disclosure of all source codes running on any and all devices, imported or otherwise. The divulgence of such source codes is of great concern to countries like the US, Japan, the EU, and South Korea; all four asked China to reverse this decision and objected to the implementation of the Chinese plan. Thus, the certification agents were soon limited to the organizations and entities within China–a compromise of sorts.[citation needed] However, despite this restriction, there still arose other concerns as to whether source codes and trade secrets could be leaked to the private sectors. In response to these enduring concerns, China altered the previously planned CCC policy programme. Instead of administering broad and stringent encroachments upon the relevant categories of imports (primarily, computer technology), they decided to engage in an alternate regulatory action solely affecting government procurement projects, while simultaneously postponing the enactment of the policy programme to May 1, 2010.[9][10][11] China also stated that the number of applicable CCC product categories is not to expand past the current 13 already in place.
