New Market Surveillance and Inspection Directive is Published

The new “Market Surveillance and Inspection Directive” has been was published in the Official Gazette No. 31775 on March 11, 2022, by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

The new directive consists of four sections and 20 articles. With the study initiated by the Ministry of Industry and Technology in May 2020, some arrangements were made in consultation with the sector representatives in order to eliminate the conflicting issues encountered in the Market Surveillance and Inspection of elevators. The new directive is now compliant to the Product Safety and Technical Regulations Law. Within this scope, elevator inspections have been updated based on risk, and a risk-based approach was adopted for stated nonconformities. Accordingly, the terms “violation of technical regulation” and “unreliability” were eliminated based on the stated nonconformities. Instead, risk levels of the nonconformities, detected with the risk methodology that has been developed, were determined, and terms including “low risk,” “moderate risk” and “high risk” were introduced based on the risk levels. In this way, a risk-based inspection approach is introduced.

The amendment also provides that the elevators which are not included in the scope of market surveillance and inspection activities are kept under control with a periodical inspection mechanism in order to ensure the safety of the elevator system. Within the scope of the Market Surveillance and Inspection Directive, the process of removal of the safety equipment will be arranged based on the risk levels, in case of an administrative sanction decision following an inspection of safety equipment is taken. In accordance with the Product Safety and Technical Regulations Law, the process regarding the nonconformities identified during the inspection is also regulated. Within this scope, various sanctions will be imposed on the ones who supply elevators with a high-risk level to the market.  Elevators which are not included in the directive will be periodically inspected. Thus, the safety of all elevators will be kept under control by the Ministry.