Glossary
Authorised representative
An authorised representative is a person or company established inside the EU (or UK) that a manufacturer based elsewhere formally appoints, in writing, to carry out specific compliance tasks on their behalf, such as holding the technical file and dealing with authorities.
Why it matters
Non-EU and non-UK manufacturers increasingly cannot place products on those markets at all without a locally established representative in the chain, so this is often the first thing an overseas hardware maker needs to arrange, not an afterthought.