El significado primario y directo de “gold-plating” es enchapar/enchapado en oro, pero la expresión aquí se usa en sentido figurado.
Según entiendo, se trata de agregar accesorios, adornos, dispositivos adicionales innecesarios para el fin que se persigue.
De momento no se me ocurre una buena traducción, pero aquí tienes la idea.

Buena suerte,
Manuel
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A principal objective of this approach is to avoid “gold-plating” weapon systems with extensive capabilities that are not truly necessary to perform the mission, but often drive up costs by necessitating the use of unique military-only parts and technologies. - www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1147/MR1147.chap2.final.pdf

The guiding principle of the EU, as set out in the treaties, is centralised control. The treaties give the European Commission the task of creating regulations and directives in the areas of health and safety, the environment, employment, and the single market. And while the European Parliament provides a façade of democracy, our own national parliament merely rubber-stamps all the rules before they are passed in UK law, often with extra 'gold-plating' by our own officials. This process has given rise to some 25,000 separate UK regulations since 1973, and few business and activities escape. - http://www.ukip.org/index.php?menu=manifesto&page=manifestot...

Transposition of EU legislation into national law also needs attention. The risk of gold-plating the original texts, thereby imposing on British businesses more stringent conditions than those that their competitors in other member states face, is real.- http://www.theyworkforyou.com/pwdata/cmpages/debates/debates...