The super-cheap Raspberry Pi computer, which was launched in February, may have arrived from its Far Eastern manufacturers, but the distributors are refusing to ship it before it gets the “European Community” certification mark.

More than 2,000 boards arrived in the UK, but they need testing before they can been sent to customers. Apparently the Raspberry Pi Foundation did not think that certification would be needed, but have been told otherwise by their official distributors RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell. Apparenltly they were unwilling to ship the Raspberry Pi until it has received the quality control CE mark.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation believed that since its computer was not a “finished end product”, it did not need certification.  Apparently it is flat out trying to get the devices CE marked “as soon as is humanly possible”. The CE mark on a product, the manufacturer ensures that the product conforms with the essential requirements of the applicable EC directives. On the plus side the Foundation told expects emissions from the uncased product to meet category A requirements comfortably without modification.

The Raspberry Pi still doesn’t have a definite shipping date. It was previously set for January release, but, as a statement on the Foundation’s blog put it, “We’re not counting our chickens before they’ve been hatched and inspected in very great detail to make sure that they are not mutant lizards.”