Professional's area | Manufacturers or service providers | Distributors | Prescribers | What is certification ?

Why request the NF mark?
With the NF brand you can:
Set yourself apart from your competitors.
Increase your customers' confidence in your company.
Highlight your professionalism and know-how.
Reinforce your brand image.
Expand your markets.
The NF mark will help you to improve quality within your company.

The NF mark offers impartial proof of the quality and high performance of your products and services. With a 85% awareness rate, the NF mark is the leading product certification mark in France. It is also well known in Europe.

What is the NF mark?
The NF mark is a certification mark. It provides your customers with indisputable proof that the products or services certified meet their needs and are compliant with the safety and/or quality characteristics defined in the corresponding certification reference system.

This reference system comprises:
French, European or international standards produced in collaboration with manufacturers, users, distributors, consumer associations, laboratories and public authorities,
Additional specifications relating to the product or service and the company's quality organisation, contained in certification regulations specific to each product or service.

The certification reference systems are established in collaboration with all the players concerned: manufacturers or service providers, professional organisations, consumers, public authorities, technical organisations, and so on.

How do you acquire the NF mark?
The NF mark is a voluntary quality mark: you are free to choose whether to request it for your products or services.
For your industrial and consumer products: NF
For your ecological products: NF Environnement
For your services: NF Service

How much does the NF mark cost?
Nowadays, it is not in any manufacturer's or service provider's interests to put products or services on the market without checking them extensively. The NF mark is based on continuous tests, audits and inspections.
Combined together, these services provide vital assurance for no more than a few thousandths of the selling price charged to the consumer.

Who issues the NF mark?
AFNOR Certification calls on and combines the scientific and technical know-how of many general or specialist organisations, who take part in certification development and management. These organisations are known as the NF mark's network.

As the leader of a network of expertise, AFNOR Certification depends, for the NF mark, on structures such as:
Authorised organisations entrusted with performing all the certification operations leading to the issuing of NF marks,
Technical secretariats, to whom parts of the certification process are sub-contracted,
Testing and analysis laboratories and specialist inspection and auditing organisations.
In this way, more than 50 organisations are able to contribute their know-how and expertise.