The NANDO database: finding and verifying a Notified Body

Last reviewed: August 2026 · Legal status verified against EUR-Lex.

NANDO — New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations — is the European Commission's official register of every Notified Body designated under EU harmonisation legislation. It is the only authoritative source for answering two questions that recur in every third-party conformity assessment: which bodies may I use for my product and my legislation, and is the body whose certificate I am holding actually entitled to issue it.

A conformity assessment certificate has legal effect only if the body that issued it was notified, for the specific act, the specific conformity assessment procedure, and the specific product range, at the time of issue. All four of those facts are checked in NANDO — nowhere else.

Where to find NANDO

The Commission has migrated the NANDO interface into its Single Market Compliance Space (SMCS), which now hosts the notified-body listings alongside other single-market compliance data. The long-standing address ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando remains the canonical entry point and directs to the current interface. Access is free and requires no account.

What a NANDO entry contains

• Body name, address, and Member State — the legal entity that was notified. Subsidiaries and branch offices of large certification groups are notified separately; a certificate must come from the notified legal entity, not an affiliate.
• The four-digit identification number — allocated by the Commission on notification. This is the number that appears next to the CE mark when the body is involved in production control (see affixing the CE mark).
• Legislation — the specific directives and regulations for which the body is notified, listed act by act.
• Procedures / modules — which conformity assessment modules (EU type-examination, quality assurance modules, unit verification, and so on) the body may perform under each act.
• Products and scope — the product families, categories, or standards the designation covers.
• Status — designations can be new, amended, suspended, or withdrawn. A body that was notified last year may not be notified today.

How to search it

Route 1 — you need to find a body for your product

1. Identify the act(s) that apply to your product first (does my product need CE marking?) and the module you intend to follow. If your route is Module A (internal production control), you do not need a Notified Body at all — this is the case for the majority of CE-marked products, including most equipment under the Low Voltage Directive and EMC Directive.
2. In NANDO, browse by legislation: select your directive or regulation to list every body notified under it.
3. Filter by country if proximity, language, or lead time matters. Any body notified under the act is legally equivalent regardless of Member State — a German manufacturer may use an Italian body and vice versa.
4. Open the body's entry and check that its procedures and product scope cover your module and product family — not merely the act in general. A body notified for the Pressure Equipment Directive may be designated only for certain categories of equipment or certain modules.
5. Shortlist several bodies and request quotations; fees and lead times vary substantially (costs & timelines).

Route 2 — you need to verify a certificate someone gave you

1. Take the four-digit number from the certificate (or from the CE marking on the product) and look the body up by notified body number.
2. Confirm the body exists, is currently notified, and that its notification covers the act cited on the certificate and the procedure performed (for example, EU type-examination under Module B).
3. Check the product scope against the product actually supplied.
4. Where doubt remains, contact the body directly: reputable Notified Bodies confirm or deny the authenticity of certificates bearing their number. Several maintain public certificate-validity registers.

This verification step is a core part of importer due diligence: an importer who places a product on the EU market on the strength of a certificate from a body that was never notified — or whose notification does not cover the act — has placed a non-compliant product on the market, with the consequences described in penalties for incorrect CE marking.

Red flags NANDO exposes

• The body is not in NANDO at all. "CE certificates" are widely sold by commercial test houses that are not notified for anything. Such documents may be genuine test reports, but they are not conformity assessment certificates under EU law and confer no presumption of anything. See common CE marking mistakes.
• The number on the product does not match a body notified for the applicable act. A four-digit number next to a CE mark that traces to a body notified only under an unrelated directive is a marking infringement in itself.
• A number appears where none should. If the applicable route was Module A, no Notified Body number belongs next to the mark. Its presence signals that the affixer did not understand the procedure.
• The designation was withdrawn or suspended. Certificates issued while a notification was in force generally remain valid until they expire or are withdrawn, but new certificates from a de-notified body are worthless. Market surveillance authorities check issue dates against notification history.

Bodies outside the EU

United Kingdom: UK bodies lost their EU notified status at the end of the Brexit transition period and were removed from NANDO. Their former numbers were either retired or reallocated. UK conformity assessment bodies now operate as "approved bodies" for the UKCA scheme under a separate UK register — see CE marking vs UKCA. Bodies in Northern Ireland occupy a special position under the Windsor Framework and can assess against EU requirements for the UK(NI) marking.

Switzerland and other MRA partners: conformity assessment bodies in countries with a Mutual Recognition Agreement with the EU (Switzerland sector by sector, and others) are recognised for the sectors their agreement covers and appear in the Commission's listings accordingly. Turkey participates in the CE system for harmonised products through its Customs Union arrangement, and Turkish bodies can be notified in the same way as Member State bodies.

NANDO and choosing well

NANDO tells you who is allowed to assess your product; it says nothing about lead time, price, sector experience, or working language. Once NANDO has given you the lawful candidates, the commercial selection criteria are covered in Notified Bodies: role, designation, and selection. Keep evidence of your NANDO verification (a dated extract or screenshot) in the technical documentation: it documents that the body's competence was checked at the time of engagement.

Sources

• European Commission — NANDO (New Approach Notified and Designated Organisations) information system.
• European Commission — Single Market Compliance Space.
• Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, Chapter on notification of conformity assessment bodies — EUR-Lex.
• Decision No 768/2008/EC, Articles R13–R30 (requirements for and notification of conformity assessment bodies) — EUR-Lex.
• Commission Notice — The "Blue Guide" on the implementation of EU product rules 2022 (OJ C 247, 29.6.2022), section on Notified Bodies — EUR-Lex.