This has no legal status, it's just that hardly anything actually gets checked. Conformity is self-reported, so either you have to lie about conformity and hope that you probably won't see any enforcement, or do the work.

You can see how well the "regulation but no enforcement" regime is working by picking up any disposable vape from the street and looking for the WEEE "do not bin" symbol. It will probably be there.

Germany is one of those more likely to check. A few years ago, our first few units delivered to Germany were stopped at customs and sent back for no CE mark (how they got sent that way is another matter). So we Made SureTM all units for EU had it.

Then Germany rejected again because the "CE" was obviously in the wrong style, on a generic sticker (I'd warned, but been told "It'll be /fine/."). And German Customs said our slip directing customers to our site for setup and operating instructions was insufficient. This time, they held our units until we sent satisfactory documentation.

Finally, we were able to send, but with after a warning from Customs that a third error would result in permanent bannage and seizure at the border of anything we sent to Germany.