Law No. 7223 on Product Safety and Technical Regulations

Law No. 7223 on Product Safety and Technical Regulations, published in Official Gazette No. 31066 of 12 March 2020, aims to ensure that products are safe and comply with the relevant technical regulations, to set the principles of market surveillance and inspection, and to define the obligations of economic operators (Article 1). It entered into force one year after publication (Article 26) and repealed Law No. 4703 (Article 25). The “Ministry” in the Law is the Ministry of Trade; inspection is carried out by the authority competent for the product concerned.

Which products and operators does Law No. 7223 cover?

The Law covers all products intended to be placed on the market, placed on the market, made available on the market or put into service (Article 2). Where a product-specific law exists, this Law applies to matters that the specific law does not regulate. Products exported to European Union member states are deemed to have been placed on the market; products exported to other countries fall outside the scope, but they must still be safe and their marking and certification must not mislead the buyer.

Separate obligations apply to manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors (Articles 7-10). Records of the previous and next operator in the supply chain must be kept for at least ten years, and this duty also binds those selling online and intermediary service providers (Article 12).

Which corrective measures must an operator take for a non-compliant product?

A manufacturer or importer that learns, or should know, that a product it placed on the market is non-compliant must promptly bring it into conformity and, where necessary, stop supply, withdraw it from the market or recall it. If the product presents a risk, the competent authority must also be informed (Articles 7 and 9). The authority may require the operator to take the following measures, as appropriate and necessary (Article 16(6)):

• informing the authority about the risks and the corrective measures taken, and bringing the product into conformity
• marking the risk with Turkish warnings or making supply subject to preconditions
• temporarily suspending a product with indications of a serious risk while it is assessed
• for products posing a serious risk: halting supply, withdrawal, recall, warning end users, and destroying the product under appropriate conditions or rendering it inoperable
• reporting that the measures were fully implemented for every product concerned

What can the competent authority do in market surveillance?

The authority may inspect products in warehouses, vehicles, business premises and production facilities, request documents and records, take samples and have products examined or tested on site (Article 16(1)-(2)). Except where the risk is serious, it must give the operator a reasonable period of at least ten working days to present a defence before taking a final decision; the notification must state the grounds and the available legal remedies (Article 16(5)). If the operator fails to act, acts late or cannot be identified, the authority itself applies the measures, including withdrawal, recall and destruction (Article 17(1)).

If a non-compliant product is sold online and the content is not removed within twenty-four hours, access to it may be blocked (Article 17(2)). Holding a conformity mark or certificate does not prevent the authority from inspecting a product or taking measures (Article 15(6)).

What does it mean for destruction and costs?

The Law treats destruction not as a stand-alone sanction but as one of the corrective measures available for products that pose a serious risk (Article 16(6)(d)). The articles on corrective measures do not describe the technical procedure for destruction; the management of a destroyed product as waste is a matter for separate legislation. Manufacturers and importers keep a record of non-compliant and recalled products (Articles 7(1)(d) and 9(1)(g)).

Costs are allocated as follows. The operator carrying out a recall bears all recall costs (Article 19(4)). If testing or examination shows that the product is non-compliant, sampling, testing and examination costs fall on the manufacturer or importer (Article 15(7)). Certain costs incurred by the authority are recovered from the operator (Article 22(1)). For a distributor that returns a withdrawn product, where destruction or disabling is required, the manufacturer or importer pays the sale value or supplies an equivalent safe product (Article 21(5)).

What are the administrative fines and grounds for exemption?

Article 20 provides graduated administrative fines according to the type of breach; the amounts are re-determined every year by a Ministry of Trade communiqué (the 2026 values are in the communiqué published in the fourth repeated issue of Official Gazette No. 33124 of 31 December 2025). If the same non-conformity recurs within two years, the fine is twice the previous one, and a fine does not prevent administrative measures from being applied.

Administrative sanctions do not apply to an operator that, without any request or warning from the authority, detects the non-conformity, takes the necessary measures including recall and fully eliminates it (Article 21(1)). Where a product causes damage, the manufacturer or importer must compensate it (Article 6). The Law was amended by Law No. 7418 of 13 October 2022 and Law No. 7511 of 23 May 2024; the latter took effect on 29 May 2024.