Market surveillance and inspection, known in Türkiye as PGD (piyasa gözetimi ve denetimi), is the checking by public authorities of whether products on the market are safe and comply with technical regulations. Its legal basis is Law No. 7223 on Product Safety and Technical Regulations. In Türkiye, nine public bodies carry out market surveillance by product group, and the Ministry of Trade's Directorate General for Product Safety and Inspection coordinates them nationally. According to the Ministry's 2025 report, 302,675 product batches were inspected and 13,211 of them were found non-compliant.
What is market surveillance based on?
Law No. 7223 aims to ensure that products are safe and comply with technical regulations, and sets out the principles of market surveillance and the obligations of economic operators. It covers all products intended to be placed on the market, placed on the market, made available or put into service. Where a specific law exists for a product, Law No. 7223 applies to matters that law does not cover.
The basic unit of the reports is the "product batch". According to the report, a product batch represents a group of products with the same brand, model and serial number. The definition also shows how an inspection identifies a product: by brand, model and batch or serial number.
Which authority inspects which products?
The bodies in the 2025 report, the number of product batches they inspected and the product groups the report highlights for each are:
| Authority | Product batches inspected (2025) | Product groups highlighted in the report |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry | 160,401 | Food and food contact materials, chemical and organic fertilizers, feed |
| Ministry of Health | 61,316 | Cosmetics, medical devices, biocidal products, packaged water |
| Ministry of Industry and Technology | 50,889 | Lifts, electrical equipment, machinery, automotive |
| Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change | 18,616 | Construction products, ready-mixed concrete |
| Ministry of Trade (Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance) | 6,189 | Footwear, toys, textiles, stationery |
| Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) | 3,570 | Radio equipment |
| Ministry of Labour and Social Security | 926 | Personal protective equipment |
| Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure | 768 | Excursion boats |
The ninth body, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, did not provide data for fuels. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry carried out roughly half of all inspections. The most inspected product group was chemical and organic fertilizers with 89,042 batches, followed by food and food contact materials with 63,189.
What did inspections find in 2025?
The number of batches inspected rose 15 percent on the previous year to 302,675. The 13,211 non-compliant batches break down as follows:
- Products presenting a risk: 3,244 batches
- Products presenting a serious risk: 442 batches
- Other non-compliant products: 9,525 batches. The report defines these as products that pose no risk but fail requirements such as markings, documents, technical documentation, labels or user manuals.
The three groups with the most non-compliance were lifts (3,393), food and food contact materials (2,861) and cosmetics (872). Automotive tops the serious-risk list with 258 batches. Of the batches inspected on the domestic market, 46,821 were imported products, and 1,650 of these were non-compliant.
Another finding concerns how inspections are done. Of the 142,274 batches inspected by bodies other than the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 15,016 were sent for testing. The report reads this share of about 6 percent as a sign that inspections rely mainly on checking markings and documents. Administrative fines imposed on non-compliant products reached TRY 3,773,689,932 in 2025, up 115 percent on the previous year.
What does it say about online sales and counterfeit cosmetics?
In 2025, only two bodies provided inspection data on online sales. The Ministry of Health examined 406 batches in 86 inspections of products sold online and found 405 of them non-compliant: 349 cosmetics and 56 biocidal products. In the Ministry of Industry and Technology's online inspections, 1 batch was non-compliant.
Counterfeit cosmetics are reported separately, because the data are not considered comparable under the general methodology. According to the report, 158,566 cosmetic products that courts, prosecutors, law enforcement and other bodies passed to the Ministry of Health, and that its review found to be counterfeit, smuggled or imitation, were destroyed. In the Ministry of Health's cosmetics inspections, 907 of 1,188 batches were non-compliant.
The new framework for online sales is the Regulation on Market Surveillance and Inspection of Products Placed on the Market through Means of Distance Communication, in force since 1 April 2025. It provides that:
- Sales listings show the name, trade name, postal and email address of the manufacturer, or of the importer if the manufacturer is abroad, along with Turkish-language warnings and safety information and conformity markings.
- For products covered by legislation on the Ministry's list, there must be an economic operator established in Türkiye.
- Marketplaces carry out authorities' content removal and other requests within 24 hours and designate a product safety contact point.
- The authority may use products bought without disclosing its identity as samples. If content is not removed within 24 hours, or the same product is listed again, access can be blocked.
In his speech at Product Safety Week on 8 June 2026, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat announced that pilot testing had been completed for the e-PGD system, which will use AI-supported text and image analysis to detect unsafe products.
How much do complaints drive inspections?
Not much. At bodies other than the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, batches inspected following a complaint made up 8 percent of all inspections. Complaints from industry to market surveillance authorities fell from 409 in 2024 to 143 in 2025. The report also notes that missing brand, model or company information in some complaints can prevent an inspection.
The authorities' complaint lines are listed in the report's annex:
| Authority | Line |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Industry and Technology | ALO 130 product safety complaint line |
| Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry | ALO 174 food line |
| Ministry of Trade (Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance) | ALO 175 consumer advice line |
| Ministry of Health | SABİM ALO 184 |
| Ministry of Labour and Social Security | ALO 170 |
| Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change | ALO 181 |
| Information and Communication Technologies Authority | ALO 120 |
| Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure | 444 24 07 |
What do these figures mean for brand owners?
You need to be able to identify your product at batch level. Both inspections and unsafe product notices identify a product by brand, model and batch or serial number. These fields appear explicitly in the notices published on the Ministry of Trade's Unsafe Product Information System (GÜBİS). Being able to show whether a product bearing your brand belongs to one of your batches helps both during an inspection and when responding to a notice.
The record-keeping obligation already exists. Article 12 of Law No. 7223 requires economic operators to keep, for at least ten years, the details of the previous and next operator in the supply chain and other information that makes the product easier to trace. The report expects this obligation to make more data on corrective measures available in the coming years. We cover the law's other obligations and the 2026 fine amounts in our article on Law No. 7223.
A complaint is a tool. Few complaints come from industry, and complaints without brand, model and company details cannot become inspections. A brand owner who detects a counterfeit of its product or an unsafe product can apply to the competent authority with information that identifies the product.
The digital channel is a separate front. We describe the notice routes for marketplace and social media listings in our article on counterfeit listings.
We describe how we give a product a batch-level or unit-level identity and build that record together with verification on our tracking, tracing and verification service page. The choice between batch and serial numbers is covered in our GS1 article.
Frequently asked questions
Which authority carries out market surveillance?
The competent authority for the product group: the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for food and feed, the Ministry of Health for cosmetics and medical devices, the Ministry of Industry and Technology for electrical equipment, machinery and automotive products, and so on. The Ministry of Trade's Directorate General for Product Safety and Inspection runs national coordination.
How many products were inspected in 2025?
According to the 2025 report, 302,675 product batches were inspected and 13,211 were found non-compliant. Counterfeit cosmetics, legal metrology and solid fuels were reported separately, outside this total.
Where can unsafe product notices be found?
The Ministry of Trade's Unsafe Product Information System (GÜBİS) publishes notices made by the ministries. They show the product group, brand, model or batch number, the measure taken and the reason the product is unsafe.
Are products sold online inspected too?
Yes. Law No. 7223 and the distance sales regulation in force since 1 April 2025 also cover products sold online. Authorities may use products bought without disclosing their identity as samples.
This article is for general information. Figures are taken from the Ministry of Trade's 2025 market surveillance report; the current text of the legislation should be checked at the official source.
Sources
- Ministry of Trade, Market Surveillance and Inspection 2025 Report, in Turkish
- Law No. 7223 on Product Safety and Technical Regulations, in Turkish
- Regulation on Market Surveillance and Inspection of Products Placed on the Market through Means of Distance Communication, Official Gazette, 30 October 2024, No. 32707, in Turkish
- Ministry of Trade, Unsafe Product Information System (GÜBİS), in Turkish
- Ministry of Trade, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat speaks at the Product Safety Week opening conference, 8 June 2026, in Turkish
