A method for the authentication of an RFID tag uses an asymmetric cryptography method which ensures protection against the recycling of authentication RFID tags and needs no deactivation of the corresponding RFID tag for this purpose. To this end, the certificate of an RFID tag to be checked is not stored on the RFID tag but is stored physically separately from the RFID tag. Firstly, the RFID reader reads the certificate of the RFID tag to be checked before the challenge-response protocol is carried out successfully with the RFID tag to be checked. Consequently, an RFID tag can be reused for authentication only when the certificate relating to this RFID tag is known.