EU manufacturers suffer from malfunctioning of the US certification market: potential abuse of dominant position

Orgalime would like to report to the European Commission a situation that might be considered as 'potentially constituting' abuse of dominant position in the US market.

European component manufacturers have been suffering for years the consequences arising from the practices of Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in the US certification market. Taking advantage of the non-competitive character of the US certification market, UL is effectively in a position to exploit its position and reinforce it, thereby leading to an increasing hold over the certification market for certain categories of goods.

The competitiveness of EU manufacturers is thus undermined by excessive pricing and unnecessary bureaucracy. The situation moreover in our view leads to an effective barrier to trade.