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 16794

  • Membership 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

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.

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 Smart Cards

This document is the current applicable 2.3 version and contains the Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) for STA Contactless Interface Certification for Public Transport Products and is intended for Vendors submitting a PT object for certification.

A version 3.0 of the technical document above is already published (for information only) and can be downloaded.

ICS for PT Readers

This document is the current applicable 2.3 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).

Technical guidelines

This document is the current applicable 2.3 version and defines the technical guidelines for testing contactless communication between Public Transport readers and Public Transport objects hosting a transport ticketing application according to the Smart Ticketing Alliance (STA) certification process.

You can download the next 3.0 version of this document (published for information only).

Test Tools Validation Methodology

This document is the current applicable 2.2 version and aims to define the process for validating the Test Tools of Applicant Laboratories part of the Smart Ticketing Alliance Certification program for contactless communication between fare media and ticketing equipment.

You can download the next 3.0 version of this document (published for information only).

The documents version 3.0 will be in use once the STA certification program 3.0 will be operational.

The launch date for the version 3.0 of the STA certification program is expected during first half of 2023 and will be communicated later.

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.

Do you want to be part of one of these working groups and help shape the future of ticketing in Europe?

Nothing is as simple as that:

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