Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) are increasingly receiving requests—often driven by regulatory expectations or market pressure—to apply test results to products beyond those physically tested. These requests most commonly arise from model number proliferation, regional part number variations,
Government Relations Federal Regulatory Updates: April 2026
Agency: Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Action: Final Rule Title: Safety Standard for Crib Mattresses Summary: The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a direct final rule updating the mandatory safety standard for crib mattresses under section 104 of the Consumer Product Safety
Government Relations Federal Regulatory Updates: January to March 2026
Agency: Federal Communications Commission Action: Final rule Title: Protecting Against National Security Threats to the Communications Supply Chain Through the Equipment Authorization Program Summary: The FCC issued this final rule to strengthen its equipment authorization process by expanding
ISO/IEC 17065: Mechanism for Safeguarding Impartiality
Impartiality is a common theme amongst conformity assessment schemes. By definition, impartiality is the absence of bias. The International Standards Organization (ISO) establishes the significance of this concept in every conformity assessment scheme (CAS). Specifically within ISO/IEC 17065, the
Government Relations Federal Regulatory Updates: October to December 2025
Agency: Federal Communications Commission Action: Final Rule Title: Promoting the Integrity and Security of Telecommunications Certification Bodies, Measurement Facilities, and the Equipment Authorization Program Summary: Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) requires all
Accreditation Case Study: ViVitro Labs
Imagine you’re the president of a testing organization with two separate labs. Each lab has its own quality management system (QMS), is accredited by different accrediting bodies (ABs) in two different languages, and there’s a nine-hour time difference between them. Operating these labs separately,
The Value of Accreditation
Accreditation is an attestation of a conformity assessment body’s (CAB) competence to perform conformity assessment activities based on a defined scope by an accreditation body, such as A2LA. It demonstrates competence, impartiality, and capabilities of CABs, thereby delivering confidence in goods
Building a Quality Culture at the Laboratory
Quality culture is built on the foundations of trust, active participation, and effective communication, where the achievement of quality objectives is cultivated through the involvement of employees. Culture is a learned behavior that is developed through interactions with other individuals within