White label and own-brand devices: when Article 11 makes you the manufacturer
Selling a device under your own name sounds like simple distribution. You order it, put your brand on it, sell it. Under the European Accessibility Act (EAA), Directive (EU) 2019/882, the paperwork side of that arrangement can change completely.
The EAA is a directive, so each Member State applies it through its own national law, and national EAA measures have applied since 28 June 2025 under Article 31(2). That matters for white label, because your legal obligations come from your national implementation, not from a single EU registration system.
This article covers the switch in Article 11: the point at which an importer or distributor stops being a middleman and takes on the full manufacturer role.
When your own brand makes you the manufacturer
The practical rule sits in Article 11 of Directive (EU) 2019/882. An importer or distributor is considered a manufacturer, and becomes subject to the manufacturer obligations in Article 7, in two situations.
The first is placing a product on the market under its own name or trademark. This is the classic white label case: an own-brand device, a private label product, a rebranded terminal sold in your shop.
The second is modifying a product already placed on the market in a way that may affect compliance. This covers the importer who does not only rebrand but also changes the device.
This only has practical effect where the device falls within the EAA product categories listed in Article 2(1), such as payment terminals, self-service terminals, consumer terminal equipment for electronic communications or audiovisual media services, and e-readers. If the device sits outside those categories, Article 11 does not create an EAA accessibility duty for you.
The two Article 11 triggers in practice
The name-or-trademark trigger is easy to spot. If the device carries your name or trademark when you place it on the market, treat yourself as the manufacturer from the start. Do not assume the factory prepared the CE marking for you as a favour you can pass on.
The modification trigger needs more judgement. Article 11 refers to modification in a way that may affect compliance. If your change touches the hardware, the software, the operating behaviour, the on-screen information, the control interfaces or the way the device is used by consumers, assume the change is relevant until you have assessed it otherwise. If a change is purely cosmetic and you can document that it cannot affect accessibility, you have a factual basis for not taking on the manufacturer role. Keep that reasoning in your records.
The test is simple: could this change alter whether the product meets the accessibility requirements? If yes, treat yourself as a manufacturer.
What Article 7 asks you to do
Once you are a manufacturer under Article 11, Article 7 applies to you. Under Article 7(2) and (3) and Annex IV, you must:
- draw up the technical documentation;
- carry out the conformity assessment procedure, which is internal production control under the manufacturer's sole responsibility;
- draw up the EU declaration of conformity;
- affix the CE marking; and
- keep the technical documentation and the EU declaration of conformity for 5 years after the product has been placed on the market.
That last point is where some private label sellers get caught out. The obligation is not to produce documents once and file them away. You keep them for 5 years after the product has been placed on the market.
If the product is covered by harmonised standards whose references have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, Article 15(1) gives you a presumption of conformity for the accessibility requirements covered by those standards. That is a presumption, not a substitute for doing the work.
The paperwork you now own
Two documents carry most of the weight.
The technical documentation is the evidence behind the claim that the product complies. For a white label device, this is usually your own file rather than a forwarded folder from the supplier. It should reflect the product as you actually place it on the market, including your branding and any changes you made.
The EU declaration of conformity is your formal statement. Under Article 16, it states that fulfilment of the applicable accessibility requirements has been demonstrated, follows the model structure of Annex III to Decision No 768/2008/EC, and must be continuously updated. Where Article 14 has been used, the declaration identifies which requirements are subject to that exception.
Under Article 16, by drawing it up, the manufacturer assumes responsibility for the compliance of the product. If Article 11 has made you the manufacturer, that responsibility sits with you, and a supplier's earlier work does not transfer it back.
Importing and distributing without becoming the manufacturer
If you do not rebrand and do not modify, you keep your importer or distributor role, and those roles have their own checks.
Under Article 9, importers may place only compliant products on the market. Before doing so, they must ensure that the manufacturer has carried out the Annex IV conformity assessment, drawn up the technical documentation and affixed the CE marking. They must keep a copy of the EU declaration of conformity at the disposal of the market surveillance authorities for 5 years.
Under Article 10, distributors must verify, before making a product available on the market, that it bears the CE marking and is accompanied by the required documents and by instructions and safety information in a language easily understood by consumers. If they have reason to believe the product is not in conformity, they must not make it available until it has been brought into conformity.
So the question for every own-brand launch is not whether you are technically an importer. It is whether you are placing the product under your own name or trademark, or modifying it in a way that may affect compliance.
One point on microenterprises: Article 4(5) exempts microenterprises providing services from the service accessibility requirements and from obligations relating to compliance with them. That exemption is written for services, not for microenterprises dealing with products. If you are a small company selling private label hardware, do not assume the service exemption reaches your product obligations.
If something goes wrong
Article 7(8) also applies to you as a manufacturer. A manufacturer who has reason to believe that a product is not in conformity must immediately take corrective measures or withdraw it, immediately inform the competent national authorities of the Member States where the product was made available, and keep a register of non-compliant products and of related complaints.
That register is often forgotten by companies that think compliance work ends when the shipment leaves the warehouse.
On penalties, Directive (EU) 2019/882 fixes no fine amount. Under Article 30, each Member State lays down its own penalties, which must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, must be accompanied by effective remedial action, and must take into account the extent and seriousness of the non-compliance, the number of non-complying units and the number of persons affected. Any figure you read is a national maximum or a national decision, not an EU-wide EAA tariff. Our overview of who must comply with the EAA sets out the framework.
Which standard to work against
Until the European Commission formally cites EN 301 549 v4.1.1 in the Official Journal of the European Union, the current reference standard remains EN 301 549 v3.2.1 (2021), which is based on WCAG 2.1 Level AA, according to AccessibleEU's notice of 7 September 2026.
When you test a white label device, remember that software and content testing is only part of the job, and manual checks still matter. Manual accessibility testing versus automated testing explains what each method catches.
What to do now
- List every product you place on the market under your own name or trademark, and every product you modify. That list is the list of products for which you are the manufacturer under Article 11.
- Ask each supplier for the technical documentation, the EU declaration of conformity and evidence of the Annex IV conformity assessment, covering the product as you will actually sell it.
- Assess each modification against the accessibility requirements and record the reasoning, especially where you conclude a change is cosmetic.
- Draw up the technical documentation and the EU declaration of conformity in your own name, affix the CE marking, and set a 5 year retention rule.
- Put the corrective action procedure and the non-compliant product register in place before you need them.
If you are not sure whether a change is cosmetic, work through the online shop accessibility checklist for the EAA and then get a professional opinion on the specific device rather than a general assurance.