Product safety
Mandatory product standard guides
A framework for identifying current mandatory requirements and building an evidence-led pre-market product file.
Start with the exact product, not a broad category name.
Record the model, variants, dimensions, composition, features, intended users, foreseeable misuse, packaging and sales channels. Small differences can affect whether a mandatory standard or ban applies and whether existing evidence remains relevant.
Distinguish safety standards, information standards and bans.
- Mandatory safety standards specify compulsory safety features or performance requirements.
- Mandatory information standards require particular information to support consumer decisions and may not be limited to physical safety.
- A banned product must not be supplied or offered for supply.
- Specialist electrical, therapeutic, food, transport or state and territory regimes may also apply.
- A voluntary standard is not automatically a legal mandatory standard, although all or part may be incorporated into a legal instrument.
Make the evidence traceable to the supplied model.
- Keep the current legal instrument and the exact edition or clause used.
- Verify model identifiers, test sample, production site, materials, dates and results.
- Check laboratory competence and accreditation for the relevant method.
- Reconcile labels, warnings, instructions and online content with the tested configuration.
- Record gaps, conditions, expiry or retest triggers and the final approval decision.
Compliance does not end at first approval.
Require suppliers to notify changes, conduct appropriate production and pre-shipment checks, monitor recalls and complaints, and reassess when a standard, ban, model, component, factory or intended use changes.
Questions to ask
Focus on the decision and the evidence.
- 01
What is the exact product and intended use?
- 02
Which current standards, bans or information rules may apply?
- 03
Does evidence match the supplied model and market?
Official sources
Check the primary material.
Practical support
Apply the guidance to your facts.
Identify the exact product, claim, customer journey, supplier, legal entity or business process involved. Preserve the information that supports the current position, record unresolved facts, assign an owner and confirm the point at which specialist review is required.
Tell us how this issue affects your organisation and receive a tailored recommendation for the most useful next step.
Important information
Check the current position.
This resource is general information, not legal advice. Laws, regulator guidance and proposals can change. Do not rely on a title or summary alone to decide whether a requirement applies to a particular entity, product or activity.