Certification group and library
The STA certification program consists of a Group of Certification Bodies bringing together Certification Bodies authorised to certify compliance of transportation and acceptance media with the CEN technical specification TS 16794 about contactless communication.
The STA Group of Certification Bodies works as a platform to ease mutual recognition between the member certification bodies (and the testing laboratories for product testing) and to limit the costs of those agreements. The main principles of the STA certification programme are the following:
a Group of Certification Bodies (GCB) gathers Certification Bodies (CB) authorised to certify compliance with
CEN/TS 16794Membership of GCB is open to CBs accredited according to ISO/IEC 17065 against CEN/TS 16794
Certificates delivered by an ISO/IEC 17065 accredited CB are recognised throughout the EU
The STA certification program has been revised, enriched is now based on the ISO/IEC TS 24192 international standard published in 2021 that replaces the historical CEN/TS 16794 standard. Meanwhile we have entered a transition period between edition 2 and edition 3 of the certification program.
Code of Conduct
Certification Bodies will follow this document in their dealings with Vendors who wish to avail themselves of STA certification.
STA considers it is essential that public authorities and users can be confident in the quality of contactless communication between contactless readers and fare media. Certification is the appropriate means to create trust. Here you will find a short overview of the certification including an explanation of the abbreviations.
The list of Public Transport Products certified according to the STA certification programme - Proximity Integrated Circuit Cards as well as others - can be consulted on the CNA/PayCert website. A list of certified Proximity Integrated Circuit Card (PICC) can be found here.
Certification Procedure
This document describes the actors and actions of the STA certification process for contactless products and their distinctive actions.
ICS for Smart Cards
The applicable certification documents depend on the chosen certification: Edition 2 or Edition 3.
This document is the current version, 2.3, and includes the Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) for STA Contactless Interface Certification for Public Transport Products. It is intended for Vendors submitting a PT object for certification.
Version 3.0
This document is the latest version of the technical document mentioned above, and it is available for download here.
Evaluation methodology for certification bodies
For a transitional period, the certification bodies shall comply with the list of requirements of the following document.
ICS for PT Readers
This document is the current applicable 2.4 version and contains the Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) for PT Readers being submitted for STA Contactless Interface Certification for Public Transport Products and is intended for Vendors submitting a PT reader for certification.
You can download the next 3.0 version of this document (published for information only). Edition 2 remains the applicable version.
Technical guidelines
The current applicable version of this document is 2.4. It provides the technical guidelines for testing contactless communication between Public Transport readers and Public Transport objects that host a transport ticketing application, as per the Smart Ticketing Alliance (STA) certification process.
Both Edition 2 and Edition 3 are applicable for PICCs, while only Edition 2 is applicable for PCDs.
Version 3.0
You can download the 3.0 version of this document here, which is also applicable for PICCs, just like Edition 2.
Test Tools Validation Methodology
The current applicable version of this document is 2.2. Its purpose is to define the process for validating the Test Tools of Applicant Laboratories as part of the Smart Ticketing Alliance Certification program for contactless communication between fare media and ticketing equipment.
For PICCs, both Edition 2 and Edition 3 are applicable, while for PCDs, only version 2 is applicable.
Version 3.0
You can download the upcoming 3.0 version of this document here. It is applicable for PICCs, similar to version 2.
Working Group Certification
The objective of the Working Group is to establish a common approach to conformity certification and the technical equivalence of certification carried out by the group members. The members will work collectively to achieve these aims but remain independent certification bodies being responsible for their own decisions and for the control of their different certification marks. Interested in participating?
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