Conformité Européenne. Ooh, la-la.

CE for short. It's a manufacturing standard used in Europe. Motorcycle safety equipment, mainly armor, is often CE rated. Helmets, in the US, are DOT, ANSI and Snell rated. DOT is Department Of Transportation. A helmet must be DOT approved to meet the requirement of wearing a helmet in a helmet law US state. If it's not DOT, it's not a legal helmet. ANSI is American National Standards Institute and is similar to CE. Snell is a foundation that tests helmets and is named for William "Pete" Snell, a race car driver who was killed when his helmet failed. Snell also tests helmets of non US make and those sold world wide. I have not found CE rated helmets in the US. Probably because DOT is what matters to the law.

To carry a CE rating or marking, a piece of gear or any item must conform to a standard of European manufacture as laid out in the European Directive. This Directive mainly concerns itself with safety compliance. It is most commonly seen on safety equipment, machinery and toys.

Some ratings are earned by independent testing done outside of the factory. Some are earned once a company completes a self test program as allowed by the European Directive. An item which carries a CE mark means that it has been deemed reasonably safe when used properly.

The US recognizes CE as valid under the Agreements on Mutual Recognition of Conformity Assessment. This is a good thing.

If a product is CE then an American consumer can be assured that it is a safe product to use for it's intended purpose. It's a real safety item, not a novelty item or some piece of third rate junk. By accepting each others safety ratings and making the standards for those ratings similar to one another, we can better trade amongst each other.

Having seen CE on so much motorcycle gear is how I came to know anything about it. I had never heard of it before. Not knowing much about the gear going into my new mode of transport, having a standard gave me a way to weed out my options. The CE rating is one big reason I bought the jacket I did. If the jacket armor was not CE rated, I would not have bought it. Given the amount of foreign Chinese crap that we Americans have had dumped on us lately, we all need to look for CE ratings when we buy foreign made products. The standard exists. We can enforce it with our wallets.

Yes, also you will see CE on electronics products, where it means something similar to a FCC conformance label. You may also see a RoHS label on some products, which means the product conforms with an EU directive on the reduction of toxic chemicals.