Legal issues when selling (non commercial) amps ?

[shocki]

Lets say you are building amps as a hobby. You might want to sell some of those amps on ebay or build amps for your friends. The goal is not to make profit (although this does not really matter)
At least here in Germany unless you don't have a certain education and your builds are not certified you are not allowed to sell those amps or even give one to your friend. As long as nothing happens you won't have a problem.
But if something happens you are in big trouble cause you will be made responsible to what has happened. In this can be very very expensive and could even lead to jail.

On the hand I totally understand this since this prevents people who do not have sufficient knowledge selling electrical devices and acutally killing people. On the other hand it is not very practical for us DIY guys

Is this the same in other EU countries and the US?

[Steve Conner]

Since I started working in the electronics industry, and had to learn about safety certification and so on, I wouldn't dream of selling homebuilt gear. I'd even have doubts about giving it away.

Case in point: I once gave my brother a MIDI master keyboard that I made out of a scrapped electronic organ. One day it quit working, so he opened it up and tried changing the fuse. Without unplugging it from the wall or even turning it off. As you might expect, he learned a painful lesson about electricity that day.

But the point is, since I made it myself, I didn't bother to put on all the usual warning labels. "Danger high voltage, no user serviceable parts inside" and so on. It seemed obvious to me that if there was a power cord going into the unit, plugged into a wall socket, there would be dangerous voltage inside. Most people don't even have an understanding of electricity at this level, though, hence why those warning labels are mandated by the Low Voltage Directive, and you can get screwed for selling equipment without them.

There are hundreds of other little considerations like this. The LVD is about 3 inches thick. For example, exposed tubes like in the old Fender combos are no-go. They don't meet the temperature rise spec, you can touch them and burn yourself.

[km6xz]

The US is not quite as strict with home made gear so someone would not likely go to jail but their lawyers would wish you were in jail. There are limitations on selling items not safety certified, using Underwriter's Laboratories which means if you burn your house down, the fire insurance is void if the cause was not UL certified. Modifying an amp to undermine the safety features voids coverage also. So there are strong incentives for homebuilt amps not to be sold to the public. Law suits are about the only way the majority of people can get ahead in the last 30 years so, other than lotteries so no matter what happens to someone the immediate thought is not of how it happened but who has the deepest pockets who can be forced to pay regardless of the contributions to the loss by actions of the person who is suing.
So any business or manufacturer has law suits weighing heavily on any business decision. Even the music industry where I had most of my experience had automatic law suits filed against every hit record or sound track I was involved with. It is automatic. A slush fund is created in the budget of every record to pay off suits for a modest sum than go through the major expense of a trial and the bad publicity. The biggest one was filed by a group because the artist "sounded too much like himself". That one did go to trial. The damages sought was $168 million. No question, he did sound just like himself.
So when I see people building boutique amps in small repair shops or homes and charging really high prices for fairy dust, I just chuckle, their windfall has a good chance of ruining their entire life. There are no certifications or liability insurance behind any of them.

[Diablo]

My guess is that if you are a small-time builder and don't have vast wealth, then you aren't a good target for a lawsuit. The lawyers are not likely to take the case on contingency, because there are no deep pockets to go after. Another idea is to use special chassis screws that require an anti-tamper wrench to open. Disclaimer: I've never sold any of my builds.