What is there to stop anyone putting a double square sticker on the unit? My Mothers house has no earths on the lighting and kitchen was lit with a fluorescent lamp had been for years the first one actually plugged into the BA22d lamp holder 1960's era.
When the room was altered for disabled use the electrician forgot to re-wire the lights, so hunt was on for a class II light unit, all tube fluorescent now seem to be class I even when in a total plastic enclosure. However I found a company called
The Double Insulated Lighting who did a 2D unit Class II I selected
Osaka Unit which seemed to do the job with today a price ticket of £53.85 however looking in B&Q and like I could find what looked like the same lamp but Class I.
As far as I was concerned it had the label so the electrician doing the work would fit it. I would not dream of swapping a 2D tube with the power on and that was only time I was likely to touch the fitting. However I still wondered if it was a Class I item with a Class II label.
I have noted that G5.3 lamps (MR16) are made 220 volt and near every fitting I have seen is designed for 12 volt so has no earth connection. OK this is an extreme example, but the point is not having an earth connection even being designed as SELV which must not have an earth connection does not mean it is suitable for use with low voltage.
So what happens if the unit in the fullness of time gives some one a shock. Let us assume it kills some one so we have a court case. They are looking at who to blame. Let us assume it is not really Class II low voltage, but has the double square sticker.
So who is blamed?
1) The manufacturer who we can assume says designed for extra low voltage and they did not put on the double square sticker.
2) The whole sale outlet who we will assume says they did not even look to see if Class II or Class I they claim they did not open the box.
3) The retail outlet who claims they bought it in good faith and did not know if it was marked as Class II or not.
4) The electrician who claims he bought it clearly marked with a double square sticker on it showing it to be Class II.
Some one clearly stuck a bulb in and put a sticker on it, but who? How would the courts find out, if the unit is say 10 years old and the heat caused the insulation to crack. Just can't see even the courts finding out who took a SELV item and stuck on the sticker and passed it off as Class II.