Standards for products and services
Are you a manufacturer or trader? Your products or services may need to meet certain standards. There are norms for, for example, toys, electric devices, or medical instruments. The Netherlands Standardisation Institute (NEN) develops and manages these standards.
What are standards?
Governments, manufacturers, traders, and consumer organisations can agree to set standards for products, services, and production processes. These are agreements about, for example:
- safety
- quality
- sustainability
If you use a standard, you show that your product or service meets certain requirements. Making agreements on services, products, and processes is called standardisation.
Do you have to use a standard?
In most cases you do not have to use a standard. Standards are not laws. But sometimes a law or regulation requires you to use a standard. For example, if:
- using the standard is the only way for you to comply with the law. You must keep to the standard in this case.
- the standard is not mandatory, but your product or service has to meet similar requirements. If you meet these requirements, you automatically meet the standard.
European standards can be used to support EU legislation and policies.
Where can you find the official standards?
You can find all official standards for products, services and processes in the Netherlands with the Royal Netherlands Standardisation Institute (Stichting Koninklijk Normalisatie Instituut, NEN). NEN develops standards for various sectors. For this NEN collaborates with parties that need standards or that work with standards, such as:
- manufacturers
- governments
- service providers
- knowledge institutions
- consumer organisations
NEN makes sure the standards are up to date. The institute also manages European standards (EN) and international standards (ISO, IEC) that are accepted in the Netherlands. There are 3 recognised European standardisation organisations: CEN and CENELEC, and ETSI. They are responsible for the European standards.
The costs of using standards
A number of NEN standards is free. You do not have to pay to consult these NEN standards:
- imperatively referred NEN standards: if the law states you must use a NEN standard
- harmonised European standards: standards developed by a recognised European standardisation organisation
- Bbl standards (in Dutch): standards from the Structures Living Environment Decree (Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving)
You have to pay in order to use other NEN standards (in Dutch).