Conformity certificate (also called quality certificate, safety certificate, obligatory certificate, Rostest certificate, GOST Russia Certificate of conformity) is a document proving irrespective of manufacturers and consumers bodies the compliance of products to the safety requirements specified in regulatory documents. Product certification in Russia is based on Federal law “Concerning the Protection of Consumers’ Rights” and “Concerning the Certification of Products and Services”. GosStandart (Federal agency for technical regulation and metrology) has adopted “Range of goods in respect of which the legal acts of the RF provide for the compulsory certification”. The range of goods is a list of products ranked according to the All-Russian classifier and appropriate regulatory documents which conformity is to be confirmed. Distribution of these goods as well as customs clearance are impossible without the submission of the conformity certificate. The most frequently applied certification procedures imply standard sample tests and extension of obtained results to the industry-standard products. In most cases the Sanitary and epidemiological inspection report serves as a requirement for the issuance of the conformity certificate.
Products passed through the necessary certification are to be marked with a conformity mark with the indication of certifying authority code that issued the certificate.
Depending on certification procedure the conformity certificate can be issued for the period up to three years. If such procedures are applied, the certifying authority makes a periodical examination of certified products by way of sampling tests at least annually.
The voluntary certification is made at the initiative of applicants (manufacturers, sellers, executors) for the purpose of confirmation of products’ compliance with the requirements of standards, technical conditions, formulations and other documents specified by the applicant. The voluntary certification is made on the terms of agreement between the applicant and certifying authority.
According to the results of a voluntary certification on the basis of authorization given by the certifying authority the products may be marked with a conformity mark of voluntary certification. This conformity mark shows that consumer’s characteristics of the products have an independent evaluation what allows improving the image of production, helps to increase the number of consumers as well as facilitates the export-import operations.
The duration of such certificate and certification procedures applied doesn’t differ from those of obligatory certification and a periodical examination is implied, if the certificate is issued for a long period.
In agreement with conventional world trends Russia has also held a course for the reduction of an obligatory certification list and one more form of conformity confirmation is adopted as a transitional measure – this is a declaration of conformity. Applying such a form of conformity confirmation the Russian supplier (offtaker) of production assumes responsibility for the compliance of products with the requirements of Russian normative and technical documentation on the basis of conducted tests. In this case the Certifying bodies only verify the declaration execution, register and validate it. Production which is subject to the obligatory declaring and in respect of which the conformity declaration has been issued is marked with the Conformity mark, if it is referred to the obligatory declaring.
RF Law No. 184-FZ dated December 27, 2002 «On Technical Regulation» introduces such a notion as “Technical regulations”. The Technical regulations is a document that specifies obligatory requirements to the objects of technical regulation aimed at the protection of human life and health, environmental defence, assurance of electromagnetic compatibility and uniformity of measurements. At the present time some Technical regulations are put in force that change the certification procedure in some way (the list of products, certification procedures, certificate appearance and its duration as well as product labelling have been changed).
Since May 01, 2009 operative Federal law No. 123 FZ “Technical Regulations on Fire Safety Requirements” dated 22.07.2008 has introduced some fundamental differences for the confirmation of compliance in the field of fire safety:
- A new certification concept has been accepted.
- An idea of Declaration of conformity in the field of fire safety has been introduced.
- The list of products subject to the obligatory certification in the field of fire safety (No. 320 dated July 8, 2002) became ineffective.
- The duration of fire safety certificates has been changed.
- The unified circulation mark has been introduced, by means of which the products are labelled that passed through the procedure of the obligatory confirmation of compliance with the Technical regulations requirements on fire safety requirements.
The products that passed through the obligatory certification for the conformity to the technical regulations are labelled with the market circulation mark. If the requirements of different technical regulations are placed to the products, the market circulation mark is put only after the confirmation of compliance of these products to the requirements of corresponding technical regulations. The market circulation mark is applied by the manufacturers (sellers) on the basis of the Conformity certificate or Declaration of conformity. The market circulation mark is put onto the products and (or) onto the containers (package), as well as into the accompanying technical documents delivered to the consumer in the distribution process.
