It’s the choice of language which is up to the member state to decide, not the inclusion of a printed manual. The guide is what it says, just a guide. The directive is what matters. Where is the source to that the guide overrules the EU Directive you point at?
From the Blue guide.
4. accompany the product with instructions and safety information (110) (111) as required by the applicable Union harmonisation legislation (112), in a language easily understood by consumers and other end-users, as determined by the Member State concerned (113). Unless otherwise specified in specific legislation, instructions and safety information need to be provided (114), whether the product is intended for consumers or other end-users. This should include all the necessary information for the safe use of the product, to enable the consumer to assemble, install, operate, store, maintain, and dispose of the product. Instructions for assembly or installation should include the inventory parts and special skills or tools.
The manufacturer, importer and distributor have the obligation to ensure that the product is accompanied by instructions in a
language which can be easily understood by consumers and other end-users, as determined by the Member State concerned. It is for
each economic operator which makes available the product in a Member State, to ensure that all the required languages are available.
Full text out of the latest version of the blue guide :
“Unless otherwise specified in specific legislation, whilst the safety information needs to be provided on paper, it is not required that all the set of instructions is also provided on paper but they can also be on electronic or other data storage format or even a website.
Where this is the case, the full set of instructions must remain accessible for a reasonable period after the product was placed on the market depending on the intended use of the product. However, a paper version should always be available free of charge for the consumers who request it.”
A EU directive is only a “legislative act” that sets out a goal that EU member countries have to achieve. However, it’s up to the individual countries to devise their own laws on how to reach these goals !
In case of directives the EU Commission ensures that they are correctly and uniformly applied within a mostly large time frame. Support to the member states by the EU Commission can be actionned by guidance documents (f.e. the blue guide).
So each member country of the EU is responsable for their own national law/legal implementation of a EU directive, as in this case.
The blue guide (applicable to a whole range of other EU directives) is the result of an ongoing process in which all parties involved (including manufactures) can work together to adapt an original text. In this case, no way to change something about the inclusion of the CE conformity and the safty instructions. About the obligation of the inclusion of user manual a new consenus was reached as marked above.
I don’t think its anything to do with “ecosensitivity”. It’s the almighty buck - manufacturers are just cheap and looking for any way to increase the bottom line!
Slightly ironic that this thread bemoans Naim suppling cables on eco-grounds yet I’ve never seen ecological comments in the myriad cable threads where some people buy serial speaker cables, interconnects, mains leads…
I’m not sure I follow. Naim do not supply speaker cables. You buy what you want. They do supply interconnects, which I am on the fence about. Most people use the supplied lavender as it is really good. But not everyone. Maybe that could be an optional extra too. It certainly used to be for Linn.
Buying serial interconnect after interconnect is another matter though. I suspect a lot are second hand and new ones become second hand. It is wasteful but probably a drop in the ocean compared to all the mains leads on every device because that topic applies to everything, not just hifi. Most homes have all the mains leads they will ever need already.
