Manufacturer's declarations for harmonised construction products

After the judgement of the ECJ in case C‐100/13 from 16 October 2014, no additional national requirements may be issued for construction products with CE‐marking. In order to implement the community requirements in Germany, the Model Building Code was revised by decision of the state building ministers conference of 13 May 2016 and is presently being implemented by the federal states through revisions of the relevant state building codes. Instead of the Construction Products List and the list of technical building rules, the standardised sample administrative regulation ”Technische Baubestimmungen“ (technical building rules, VV TB) has now become valid, which was published on 01 September 2017 by the German institute for building technology, DIBt. One alternative possibility for the verification of suitability for construction is a manufacturer's declaration based on a requirement document. In this case the requirement document reflects the technical requirements according to standards for the construction product or building type, the fulfilment of which is guaranteed for the specific product in the manufacturer's declaration of the relevant manufacturer. The manufacturer thus accepts liability that his product fulfils the legal requirements. This guarantee declaration under civil law as a supplement to the public building law conforms to European law and is a transparent and practical solution to be able to ensure the achieved level of health protection, environmental acceptability and safety in building practice.     

New national construction product regulations of the German states

The European Court of Justice ruled in October 2014 that Germany had infringed the EU Construction Products Regulation because additional national requirements for harmonised products had been imposed in three cases. This means that the German practice until now, that additional national technical requirements are also imposed on harmonised construction products, will have to be abandoned. Germany has assured the EU Commission that the building regulation law will be appropriately changed by 16/10/2016. This could however not been implemented on time for various reasons, so the German states have issued enforcement decrees in order to adapt the legal situation to the ECJ judgment. The legal situation at the moment is fairly complex and confusing. This article provides a brief overview.