The technical assessment and justification along with the applicable standards are either equivalent or identical for Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) when it comes to C Tick marking and CE marking. The Australian technical requirements for C Tick are a subset of the CE requirements for EMC, with CE including additional requirements for immunity. Also CE is much more extensive than C Tick as it covers a broad range of product safety with application from toys to watercraft. And although C Tick covers radio transmitters and EMR, in the case of EMC the test reports used for CE may be used for C Tick.

The set of standards mandated by the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) for EMC include European Standards (these commence with an EN). Some care must be taken to ensure that the EN standard applied is applicable to the product that a supplier is placing on the Australian market and that all applicable clauses of current version of the standard have been applied. Note that “applicable” is the key word as older standards may still be applicable as the changes that led up to the current version of the standard are not relevant to the product being supplied.

Variants and families of products, as well some special cases such a battery operated devices, need technical assessment and justification to show that they are compliant. This can be achieved by an analysis of the “critical components” and the design with the aim of finding the most representative configurations as well as identifying those components that are benign or low risk from and EMC perspective.

Once the technical file is completed all that remains is to fill out the Declaration of Conformity form that is available from the ACMA’s website and place the C Tick mark on the product. To obtain the C Tick just fill out the application on the ACMA’s website and they will register you on their database and issue you with a supplier code number.

Just a reminder that only Australian companies can apply for C Tick and that agency agreements can only be made between Australian companies such as the importer and the Australian agent. An agency agreement between an Australian agent and a non-Australian company is meaningless.

The ACMA will phase out the C Tick mark beginning March 2013 with the Regulatory Compliance Mark (RCM) being the replacement. Their aim, in apart, is to minimize the number of compliance marks required on Australian products. The changes will see the RCM cover telecommunication, radiocommunications, EMC, EMR. Currently the RCM is an alternative to the C Tick and may also be used to show compliance with relevant electrical safety regiemes. Its use for electrical safety will continue.