A few weeks after opening pre-orders and beginning production of the tiny Raspberry Pi Linux computer, its developers have announced that two of its UK retail partners are unwilling to distribute the device without the CE marking. This mark is fairly ubiquitous on consumer electronics products and indicates that the manufacturer is complying with Europe's regulations and that the product can be sold throughout the Europe Economic area. This comes a few days after the Raspberry Pi team declared that they weren't having their devices tested for electromagnetic compatibility, a key part of getting the CE mark. The team declined to seek the CE mark because it believes Raspberry Pi is not a "finished end product" and thus doesn't need it, but apparently its retail partners think otherwise.

However, the team is now working quickly to get the 2,000 Raspberry Pi devices that were just delivered to the UK certified as quickly as possible by having the aforementioned EMC tests performed. Raspberry Pi's developers are also working with the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills to determine once and for all if the computer in fact requires the CE marking. Either way, the boards will hopefully be shipping soon, but the team can't say exactly when yet.