The BENOR label is owned by the Standards Bureau (NBN), which is the body responsible for the development and sale of standards in Belgium. The NBN is a public interest body, whose supervising Minister is the Federal Minister for the Economy. The NBN’s mission is set out in the Belgian Standards Act of 3 April 2003, amended by the Act of 28 February 2013 introducing the Code of Economic Law.

The BENOR label certifies that a product or service complies with a technical quality reference framework adopted by all of the parties involved in placing that product or service on the market. Once adopted, this reference framework is detailed in a standards document called Prescriptions Techniques – Technische Voorschriften (PTV), or Technical Requirements.

The BENOR label systematically covers all of the relevant features of the product or service for its practical application and implementation by the user, whether public or private. As a result, the performances stated on the product or service will comply with the quality expectations of the sector in question, as well as its customers.

The BENOR label is managed by an independent non-profit organisation, which is the association for management of the BENOR label. This association is made up of all the stakeholders concerned by the products and services that it covers. This is regardless of whether they are public or private users, manufacturers or service-providers. It also brings together the sector-specific bodies that handle the day-to-day management and the de certification process of the label.

Whereas Technical Approvals, ATG, cover unique, innovative and complex products and systems, products under BENOR license are families of products for which normative documents exist.

There has always been a good cooperation between the organisations responsible for the ATG-merk and the BENOR licence. Most recently, a protocol of cooperation was agreed upon in 2020.