Recently, the China Government Procurement Network released the Announcement on the Service Standards for Sampling Inspection Institutions for National Supervision and Sampling Inspection of Product Quality in 2024 (hereinafter referred to as the “Announcement”), involving 139 types of products including electronic appliances, durable consumer goods, etc. Among them, five categories of lighting-related products including fixed general lighting fixtures, portable general lighting fixtures, embedded lighting fixtures, explosion-proof lighting fixtures, and external lighting and optical signaling devices for motor vehicles will become the focus of this year’s national supervision and sampling inspection of lighting product quality. Additionally, external lighting and optical signaling devices for motor vehicles are newly added categories of lighting products for this year.
Common types of fixed general lighting fixtures in the national sampling inspection include: chandeliers, ceiling lights, fixed spotlights, track lights, and grid lights, among others. In 2023, the national sampling inspection results for fixed general lighting fixtures were unexpectedly pessimistic, with a product qualification rate of approximately 43%, which decreased by about 50 percentage points compared to the previous national sampling inspection in 2021, and was far below the normal level of previous years’ national sampling inspections.
Common types of portable general lighting fixtures in national sampling inspections include: desk lamps, floor lamps, reading lamps, and similar products. In 2023, the national sampling inspection for portable general lighting fixtures (specifically for reading and writing desk lamps) resulted in a product qualification rate of approximately 93%, which increased by 12 percentage points compared to 2022.
Common types of explosion-proof lighting fixtures in national sampling inspections include: explosion-proof platform lights, explosion-proof work lights, explosion-proof floodlights, explosion-proof emergency lights, and similar products. In 2023, the quality of explosion-proof lighting fixtures in the national sampling inspection showed a slight decline, with a product qualification rate of approximately 71%, which decreased by 20 percentage points compared to the previous year, but remained relatively consistent with the results from 2021.
Common types of embedded lighting fixtures in national sampling inspections include: downlights, linear lights, and similar products. In 2023, the product qualification rate for embedded lighting fixtures in the national sampling inspection was approximately 37%, a decrease of 49 percentage points compared to 2019.
From the perspective of national sampling inspections, the quality of lighting products in China was poor in 2023, and the quality issues of lighting products sold on e-commerce platforms were particularly prominent. The main reasons for non-compliance are: firstly, insufficient understanding of national standards and unreasonable product structural design by companies; secondly, inadequate quality control of components such as insulation materials and control device elements during the production process; thirdly, failure of companies to install key components such as filtering elements in the product circuit, resulting in non-compliance with performance parameters.
In response, market supervision authorities have required the immediate cessation of production and sales of non-compliant products by the production and sales units, to prevent non-compliant products from entering the market. Simultaneously, they have ordered the units to complete rectification within a specified period and conducted timely re-inspections. Quality violations discovered during inspections are dealt with seriously in accordance with the law, and cases suspected of constituting crimes are referred to judicial authorities.
With the normalization of market supervision systems and the increasing emphasis of consumers on product quality, strict control of the quality of lighting fixtures has become the primary task for lighting companies in their production and operation processes. It is also a powerful weapon for them to seize market share and expand product sales.
At the same time, in the face of the still severe quality issues of lighting products, lighting companies should take the initiative to bear the responsibility for quality and safety, strictly adhere to product quality, provide safe and high-quality products, effectively regulate the market order, and provide consumers with high-quality and comfortable lighting environments from the product side, promoting high-quality development of the economy, society, and lighting industry.
The announcement pointed out that verification effectiveness inspections were implemented in the field of mandatory product certification. Nineteen certification bodies were involved, covering 2148 batches of products, with a certification body coverage rate of 55.9%.
The inspections found that 340 batches of sampled products did not meet the certification requirements. This included 42 batches of lighting and display products that did not meet the certification requirements, with 32 batches of lighting products being non-compliant. Twenty-eight lighting companies were involved, mainly from cities such as Zhongshan, Foshan, Shenzhen, and Jiangmen in Guangdong Province, as well as companies from Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.
The main reasons for non-compliance of lighting products with certification were: harassment voltage, external and internal wiring, radiation harassment, structure (except for retinal blue light hazards), electric shock protection, creepage distance and electrical clearance, heat resistance, fire resistance, resistance to marking, dust resistance, solid foreign object resistance, and waterproofing, insulation resistance, electrical strength, harmonic current, etc. Additionally, 78.12% of the products had issues with harassment voltage, which was the main reason.
Relevant information has been reported to the relevant certification bodies, and based on relevant regulations, the certification bodies have revoked 819 certification certificates for products that do not meet the certification requirements.
For products found to be seriously non-compliant through inspections and whose certification certificates have been revoked (see attachment for details), certification bodies will not accept certification requests for these products within six months. For products with revoked self-declarations (see attachment for details), producers (manufacturers or authorized representatives) cannot reapply for self-declarations within six months.
