New safety standards for goods in Russia

The Russian President has recently signed into law the Federal Law "On Technical Regulations" which outlines new safety standards for Russian and foreign goods produced or sold in Russia. The law, which comes in to effect on 1 July 2003, will replace several Federal Laws currently in force, such as the law "On Certification of Products and Services", "On Standardisation", and other subsidiary acts.

The new law is intended to raise safety levels (specifically regarding heavy machinery, fire safety, biological or radiation poisoning, and environmental damage, among other hazards) by shifting the responsibility for maintaining safety standards from the government to the private sector. Currently, the government issues certificates, but under the new law Russian manufacturers and suppliers, and representatives of foreign producers, must obtain certificates from a specially created agency and ensure that their goods are properly labeled. Failure to meet these requirements will attract stiff penalties.

Until the enactment of new safety standards, certification of goods will be carried out on the basis of the existing standards and regulations. Certificates issued before the enactment of the law will be valid until they expire.

What is "Technical Standard"?

"Technical Standard" is the name of the new list of safety requirements for relevant products and their production. These requirements will cover labour, services, transport, storage, and product usage. This new law allows lawmakers until 2010 to produce new regulations governing these requirements, or to adopt existing international regulations.

The law stipulates that the new safety regulations, upon taking effect, will immediately replace existing regulations, such as GOST (General Government Standards) and SniPy (Safety Standards upon Construction of buildings).

What is Certification of Goods?

Certification of goods is confirmation that those goods comply with safety standards. There are two kinds of certification; mandatory and voluntary, both retained from the previous legislation.

Since private entities and individuals, and not the state, will be directly responsible for basic quality control, mandatory certification will be governed by a new set of regulations. The state bodies that will perform inspections prior to the issue of mandatory certifications have yet to be named.

It will be a requirement of mandatory certification that information labels be placed on each product, although the exact nature of the label has yet to be determined.

Manufacturers' and suppliers' liability and penalties for non-observance of the law

The law:

• prohibits the limitation of liability and the duty to indemnify for damages in agreements between parties
• places responsibility for maintaining a products' certification on its producers or suppliers. Thus, these private entities are required to renew all certifications and will be fined if they fail to do so
• introduces new penalties, ranging from warnings to the recall of goods from the sale.

Recognition of foreign certificates

The law will also recognize foreign certificates, but only if a relevant treaty exists between Russia and the country in question. The details of the implementation of this new policy are not yet clear.

For further information please contact David Griston at [email protected] or on 00 7 095 2585000.