Do you know if dangerous goods will be blocked at the checkout?
Goods that are dangerous to health, such as counterfeit and low—quality products, may be automatically blocked at the checkout. The relevant bill will be considered by State Duma deputies on June 23. The initiative has already received government support. Currently, in order to withdraw such products from circulation, it is necessary to undergo a lengthy procedure of inspections and approvals. As a result, even after violations are detected, the product may remain on the shelves of other stores for some time. When the new product control system will start working and how it will function — in the Izvestia article.
Why has the blocking of such products not been introduced yet?
In Russia, they are preparing to introduce a mechanism for operational blocking at the cash desks of goods that may pose a threat to the life and health of consumers. As Izvestia found out, the relevant bill, introduced by United Russia deputies, may be considered by the State Duma in the first reading as early as June 23. The initiative was supported by the government, the relevant State Duma committees on health protection, as well as industry and trade. The majority of regional legislative assemblies also provided positive feedback on the document.
"The current legislation does not ensure the immediate termination of the sale of products upon receipt of reliable information about their non-compliance with mandatory requirements. Control measures are carried out, as a rule, with prior notification of the controlled person and coordination with the prosecutor's office. During the time required for such procedures, dangerous products continue to be in circulation and sold to consumers," the explanatory note to the draft law argues in favor of adopting new standards.
The document notes that the goods subject to mandatory labeling are tracked in the GIS MT "Honest sign". However, there is currently no mechanism allowing the supervisory authorities to promptly stop their turnover. As a result, even if a dangerous batch of goods is identified and an order is issued to a specific seller, such products may continue to be sold in other outlets, the document says.
In 2025, Rospotrebnadzor conducted 1.15 million samples of food raw materials and foodstuffs. Some of them did not meet the mandatory requirements for microbiological indicators, including 11.6% of caviar cans that did not meet quality standards. Violations were also detected in 6% of fish, products produced from it, in 4.6% of confectionery, 4.4% of culinary products.
The purpose of the draft law is to create a legal mechanism that allows to immediately stop the sale of products if they do not comply with mandatory requirements. To do this, it is proposed to amend five federal laws, including norms regulating consumer protection, sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population, trade activities and state control (supervision).
In particular, the document establishes the types of control measures — selective control, raid inspections, documentary and on-site inspections, which will be carried out without prior notification to the business. In addition, the right of the supervisory authorities to issue an order to suspend or ban the sale of products in case of violations is established. At the same time, it is mandatory to inform consumers about such measures, as well as to send a copy of the order and the results of the inspection to the prosecutor's office.
The procedure for appealing decisions, the timing of their possible cancellation or amendment, as well as the conditions for the subsequent resumption of product sales are separately regulated.
As the author of the bill, Sergey Lisovsky, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition, explained to Izvestia, the initiative will not lead to an increase in the burden on business, as it does not introduce any new type or grounds for verification.
— Rospotrebnadzor has the right to carry out all the measures in question now according to the current law "On sanitary and Epidemiological welfare of the population." At the same time, the bill expands the rights of participants in the turnover. For example, the seller, and not just the manufacturer, as now, has the right to request information from the regulatory authority about the reasons for the blocking and appeal the order," the deputy explained.
In addition, according to him, a specific deadline is being set for the return of products to circulation — three working days from the moment the grounds for the ban are lifted.
The document will be reviewed taking into account the comments of the government, which proposed to give a deadline for finalizing information systems. According to the new version of the bill, its main part will enter into force on September 1, 2026, and some provisions — from March 1, 2027.
The government's press service told Izvestia that the official position of the cabinet is set out in the review.
Will counterfeit goods disappear from stores
This bill is a critically important digital shield for millions of customers, Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative, told Izvestia. According to him, today the permissive regime at the cash desks successfully cuts off overdue or undocumented goods. However, when identifying dangerous counterfeit products, Rospotrebnadzor, according to him, is forced to undergo lengthy court procedures, which can take months before it is possible to stop the turnover of such products on the market.
— During this time, fake products manage to be sold out. The new initiative gives the supervisory authority the right to act urgently. The Honest Sign state system will make it possible to instantly block the sale of dangerous goods at absolutely all cash registers in the country, and consumers will no longer be a "testing ground" for unscrupulous businesses: it will be impossible to buy such goods, the social activist said.
According to him, this is especially important because the volume of illegal products in retail remains impressive. Since the end of 2024, Rospotrebnadzor has blocked the sale of about 3 billion units of labeled goods that do not meet mandatory requirements using the labeling system, Oleg Pavlov said. This is a huge amount of potential counterfeit, falsification and delay, which did not reach the baskets of customers, the bill will allow scaling this success to emergency cases of detection of health threats, the public figure believes.
— In practice, we see how the labeling system helps to increase market transparency. As part of the work with the labeling system, a permissive regime was introduced at the checkout in 2024. The driver of the development of such a mechanism, together with the CRPT, was network trading," the chairman of the Association of Omnichannel Retail Companies (ACORT) told Izvestia Stanislav Bogdanov.
According to him, the ban on sales due to expiration dates and the ban on the sale of goods prohibited by decision of government authorities are priorities for retailers. These measures will complement the multi—stage quality control systems built in ACORT member companies with an automatic mechanism that completely eliminates the sale of questionable products to the end user.
— Therefore, the development of such projects with their implementation on the basis of a labeling system is understandable and logical, since, as already mentioned, digital labeling in general and the permissive regime in particular are a good complement to the control system in networks. At the same time, it is fundamentally important for us that the locking mechanism at the checkout does not become the only control tool," AKORT said.
They also noted that low—quality goods are not produced by retail - they appear at earlier stages of the distribution chain. Therefore, the control and supervisory work should cover the entire supply chain, and not focus only on the final link of the implementation.
They also believe that Rospotrebnadzor should continue preventive work within the framework of a risk-based approach at every stage — from production to shelf. Stanislav Bogdanov is convinced that it is necessary to deal primarily with the cause of the appearance of substandard goods, and not with the consequence.
— We are aware of this initiative, we share the relevance of the changes stated in the draft law and see a number of tasks that should be solved by finalizing the document. The relevant recommendations were developed by Magnit and other market players as part of its discussion on the platforms of relevant industry associations, the retailer's press service reported.
At the same time, they noted that Magnit already has all the technical capabilities to promptly respond to identified inconsistencies in the quality of goods purchased for sale and to stop their turnover.
Izvestia also sent inquiries to the largest retail chains asking them to give their assessment of the new initiative.
— We support the bill. The adoption of the initiative will give regulatory authorities the opportunity to urgently block the sale of dangerous goods out of court in the interests of buyers. Today, such restrictions require the participation of the court, which means that the response to the threat slows down significantly, which is especially critical when there is a risk of mass poisoning," the press service of the Center for Advanced Technologies, operator of the national digital labeling and traceability system Honest Sign, told Izvestia.
They also noted that the state system will ensure the automation of this mechanism.: it will inform the participants of the turnover about dangerous products and block their sale to the end user.
The bill does not create new responsibilities for businesses: it digitizes and accelerates the powers that control and supervisory authorities already have, using the ready-made infrastructure of the Fair Sign. The implementation of the law, if adopted, will also not require additional budget expenditures, the organization stressed.
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