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Council Directive 90/385/EEC
(5 September 2007)

Article 2

Member States shall take all necessary steps to ensure that the devices may be placed on the market and/or put into service only if they comply with the requirements laid down in this Directive when duly supplied, properly implanted and/or properly installed, maintained and used in accordance with their intended purposes.

Article 3

The active implantable medical devices referred to in Article 1(2)(c), (d) and (e), hereinafter referred to as ‘devices’, shall satisfy the essential requirements set out in Annex 1 which apply to them, account being taken of the intended purpose of the devices concerned.

Where a relevant hazard exists, devices which are also machinery within the meaning of Article 2(a) of Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on machinery shall also meet the essential health and safety requirements set out in Annex I to that Directive to the extent to which those essential health and safety requirements are more specific than the essential requirements set out in Annex 1 to this Directive.

Article 4

1.  Member States shall not create any obstacle to the placing on the market or the putting into service within their territory of devices complying with the provisions of this Directive and bearing the CE marking provided for in Article 12, which indicates that they have been the subject of an assessment of their conformity in accordance with Article 9.

2.  Member States shall not create any obstacles to:

  • devices intended for clinical investigations being made available to duly qualified medical practitioners or authorised persons for that purpose if they satisfy the conditions laid down in Article 10 and in Annex 6,
  • custom-made devices being placed on the market and put into service if they satisfy the conditions laid down in Annex 6 and are accompanied by the statement, which shall be available to the particular identified patient, referred to in that Annex.

These devices shall not bear the CE marking.

3.  At trade fairs, exhibitions, demonstrations, etc., Member States shall not create any obstacle to the showing of devices which do not conform to this Directive, provided that a visible sign clearly indicates that such devices do not conform and cannot be marketed or put into service until they have been made to comply by the manufacturer or his authorised representative.

4.  When a device is put into service, Member States may require the information described in sections 13, 14 and 15 of Annex 1 to be in their national language(s).

5.  (a) Where the devices are subject to other Directives concerning other aspects and which also provide for the affixing of the CE marking, the latter shall indicate that the devices are also presumed to conform to the provisions of the other Directives.

(b) However, where one or more of these Directives allow the manufacturer, during a transitional period, to choose which arrangements to apply, the CE marking shall indicate conformity to the provisions only of those Directives applied by the manufacturer. In this case, particulars of the Directives applied, as published in the Official Journal of the European Communities, must be given in the documents, notices or instructions required by the Directives and accompanying such devices; these documents, notices or instructions shall be accessible without it being necessary to destroy the packaging which keeps the device sterile.

Article 12

1.  Devices other than those which are custom made or intended for clinical investigations considered to meet the essential requirements referred to in Article 3 must bear the CE marking of conformity.

2.  The CE marking of conformity, as shown in Annex 9, must appear in a visible, legible and indelible form on the sterile pack and, where appropriate, on the sales packaging, if any, and on the instruction leaflet.

It must be followed by the identification number of the notified body responsible for implementation of the procedures set out in Annexes 2, 4 and 5.

3.  The affixing of markings on the devices which are likely to deceive third parties as to the meaning and form of the CE marking shall be prohibited. Any other marking may be affixed to the packaging or to the instruction leaflet accompanying the device provided that the visibility and legibility of the CE marking is not hereby reduced.

Article 13

Without prejudice to Article 7

(a) where a Member State establishes that the CE marking has been affixed unduly or is missing in violation of this Directive, the manufacturer or his authorised representative established within the Community shall be obliged to end the infringement under conditions imposed by the Member State;

(b) where non-compliance continues, the Member State must take all appropriate measures to restrict or prohibit the placing on the market of the device in question or to ensure that it is withdrawn from the market in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 7.

Those provisions shall also apply where the CE marking has been affixed in accordance with the procedures in this Directive, but inappropriately, on products that are not covered by this Directive.