How to Check Whether a CE Certificate Is Real
A supplier sends you a PDF with a blue CE mark on the cover. It looks official. It has a certificate number, a logo, a signature and a date.
Most of the certificates that arrive this way are genuine documents. The problem is usually not that they are forged — it is that they do not cover the product you are buying, or they belong to a company that is not the company making your goods. Both are more common than outright forgery, and both are worse than useless.
Four fields decide it.
One: the notified body number
Next to the CE mark on a certificate there should be a four-digit number. That number identifies the notified body that issued the certificate. Look it up in the European Commission’s NANDO database.
If the number is not in NANDO, the certificate is not a notified body certificate, whatever the document says. If it is in NANDO but the scope listed there does not include your product family, the certificate does not cover you.
Products that fall under the Machinery Directive, the Low Voltage Directive, the EMC Directive and similar regimes often do not need a notified body at all — the manufacturer self-declares and draws up a technical file. In that case there should be a Declaration of Conformity, not a certificate, and asking for the “CE certificate” is asking for the wrong document. A supplier who produces a beautifully typed certificate for a product that only requires self-declaration has produced a document with no legal standing.
Two: the product scope
A certificate covers named product families, not a category. A certificate for “examination gloves, nitrile, powder-free” does not cover surgical gloves, and does not cover latex. A certificate for “LED luminaires, indoor use” does not cover an outdoor floodlight.
Read the scope line, and compare it to what you are actually ordering. This is where most buyer-side failures happen, and it is entirely avoidable.
Three: the issue date, not just the expiry
Medical devices are the clearest example. Certificates issued under the old Medical Devices Directive were extended by a 2023 amendment, but the extension has conditions and different end dates by device class. A certificate with a printed expiry date two years in the future can still be outside its transition window.
For construction products under the CPR, the harmonised standard behind a certificate can be withdrawn or replaced. A valid certificate referencing a superseded standard is a certificate with a shelf life.
The rule: check the issue date against the current regulatory position, not only the expiry date on the page.
Four: the holder
The certificate names a legal entity with an address. Compare that name and address to:
- The business licence of the factory you are dealing with
- The address the goods will actually ship from
- The name on the commercial invoice
If a trading company presents a certificate issued to a manufacturer, ask which plant will run the order. Subcontracted production is normal in some categories and not disclosed in others.
The three fake-looking-but-real cases
Not every mismatch is fraud. Before you accuse anyone:
A group certificate covering several factories. Some manufacturers hold a certificate for a group structure, and the shipping plant is a subsidiary.
A certificate in a predecessor’s name. Companies rename and restructure. Check whether the old name maps to the current entity.
A certificate for a component, not the finished product. In some categories the certified item is the sub-assembly, and the finished goods carry a different conformity route.
The ten-minute check
- Read the four-digit number next to the CE mark
- Search it in NANDO; confirm the body and its scope
- Read the product scope on the certificate against your item
- Check the issue date against current transition rules for that product family
- Match the certificate holder’s name and address to the business licence
- If anything is unclear, email the notified body directly and quote the certificate number — they answer, and they answer quickly
Step six is the one almost nobody does, and it is the only step that produces a definitive answer.
Buying a product that needs certification and want the paperwork checked before you commit? Send us the certificate — we will tell you what it covers and what it does not.
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