When you buy climbing equipment for personal or professional use it is imperative that it meets safety legislation for your safety, peace of mind and to ensure any relevant insurance is not invalidated. While all the equipment we sell for climbing meets these stringent standards there are some variations in the standards that can cause confusion among consumers, we'll try to explain...
EN standards are also known as CEN or ISO incorporate the British Standards BS and Kitemark standards and the well-recognised UIAA mountaineering and climbing equipment standards. CE marking of products is now a legal obligation that certifies the product meets all applicable EN standards so any climbing equipment that carries the CE mark will have undergone a process of certification. NEVER use climbing equipment that does not carry the CE mark.
UIAA certification is therfore no longer strictly necessary although since the unification of the standards UIAA has made some changes which have attempted to keep the alternative UIAA specifcations relevant if not obligatory.
"UIAA standards were the first standards for mountaineering and climbing equipment in the world. So when the EU wanted to make standards for equipment, they adopted the UIAA ones. Today, the UIAA standards are based on the CEN standards in order to avoid the confusion of multiple standards." (source: http://www.theuiaa.org/) .
Some manufacturers do still complete both current certification processes (UIAA and CEN) which in our opinion adds unnecessary costs which reflect in higher consumer prices and perversely helps perpetuate the confusion for buyers rather than clarify that both are equivalent. It is true that there are some small differences between the standards as UIAA reviews criteria more frequently than CEN. However you take a look though the standards these differences are usually very small - in the case of slings for example, the only difference we can find is that 50% of the stitching at the join should be of a contrasting colour to the main sling, since this particular feature is included by default by all quality manufacturers as a matter of course nowdays although not specifically required by CEN the adjustments of the criteria by UIAA is for the most part superfluous.
For example , Rock Empire's stance on this issue is : "All our products that are used for climbing and or for industrial work conform to European legislation specifications and have CEN certification. This certification is a standard that must be met by any company making and selling products that are used in such a way as our products. The certification specifications are very rigorous and are equal to the UIAA specifications. We do not have UIAA certification for two reasons- the first being that it is not needed and would only duplicate the CE certification and second reason is that it is expensive. "
Provided that you purchase new climbing equipment from a recognised brand and via a proper retailer you are exceptionally unlikely to find any product on the market that has not gone through a rigorous third party testing to meet the appropriate CEN and or UIAA standard. As a friend once said to me - "its bad for business to kill your customers !"
