An Australian-owned consulting firm

Who we are

Universal Approvals Pty Ltd is an Australian-registered compliance and certification consultancy based in Melbourne. We work with manufacturers, importers, distributors and overseas brands placing electrical, electronic, telecommunications and medical equipment on regulated markets.

Our engineers are Registered Chartered Professional Engineers with Engineers Australia, and bring more than sixteen years each in regulatory compliance and product approvals. We have worked with some of the largest companies in Australia and overseas, and with first-time importers bringing a single product to market. The work is the same in principle: establish what the regulator requires, establish what the client already has, and close the difference with evidence that will stand up.

Independent of any laboratory or certifier

Universal Approvals is not a test laboratory and not a certification body, and we hold no ownership interest in either. We do not earn anything from sending you to a particular lab, and we have no commercial reason to recommend testing your product does not need. Our role is to define the correct pathway, coordinate the accredited parties who perform the testing and certification, and hold the documentation together.

To be clear about what that word means here: it describes our independence from the bodies that test and certify. It does not mean a loose network of contractors. The assessment, review and documentation work is done by our own engineers, employed by this firm, in our Melbourne office.

Your information stays with us

We do not subcontract your compliance work. Drawings, specifications, test data, supplier details and commercial terms are handled inside the firm and are not passed to third parties for assessment.

The one exception is unavoidable and always visible to you: some testing and certification can only lawfully be done by an accredited laboratory or certification body. Where that applies, we tell you which body is involved before anything is sent, share only what that body needs for the scope of work, and can put a confidentiality agreement in place first. Nothing goes anywhere you have not agreed to.

Our capability

• Australia & New Zealand — EESS and the Electrical Regulatory Authorities Council (ERAC), RCM under AS/NZS 4417.1 and AS/NZS 4417.2, ACMA EMC, telecommunications and radiocommunications requirements, NSW Fair Trading, and WorkSafe New Zealand.
• International — CE marking for the European Union, UKCA and CE for Great Britain, FCC equipment authorisation and NRTL listing for the United States, ISED certification and CSA-scheme safety marks for Canada, and SNI certification with DJID (formerly SDPPI) type approval for Indonesia.
• Representation — ERAC Authorised Representative and Responsible Supplier in Australia, with equivalent local representative and authorised representative arrangements organised for other markets.
• Post-market — recall risk assessment, ACCC recall support, corrective action planning and ongoing compliance maintenance.

Confidentiality

We do not publish client names, product details or project specifics. Much of what we see is pre-launch design information, or a compliance problem a client would rather not advertise, and it is treated accordingly. Where a reference would help, we ask the client first.