According to Law “Concerning certification of products and services” (dated December 27, 1995, № 211-FZ with the amendments and additions) certification is a method of objective control over quality of products, their compliance with established requirements, as well as their safety to environment, life, health, property of the citizens. Availability of a certificate helps buyers make a competent choice of products and provides a certain guarantee of their quality.

Certification confirms quality of products claimed by a manufacturer, facilitates export and import of products, increases competitiveness.

It can be compulsory and voluntary.

Compulsory certification is a confirmation by a notified body of consistency of products with mandatory requirements. A mandatory requirement is a requirement envisaged in a legal normative document subject to implementation with the purpose of attaining compliance with this document. Mandatory are usually requirements meant to secure safety of people, their property and environment, technical and information compatibility and interchangeability of products and some other requirements necessitated by provision of identity of control and marking techniques. A list of products subject to compulsory standartization, as well as its parameters, indices and characteristics are determined under current legislation and legal normative acts of a country.

A mandatory requirement encompasses indices of environmental and consumer safety. Thus, under compulsory certification of products both a manufacturer and a consumer become confident that consumption is safe.

Voluntary certification is introduced at the initiative of manufacturers, suppliers and sellers of products with the purpose to confirm their compliance not only with mandatory requirements of legal normative acts, but also with advertised properties and indicators. As a rule voluntary certification is introduced to increase demand for products through information on high quality and safety of products, higher mutual trust of suppliers and consumers, greater possibilities for consumers to choose products.

Under voluntary certification both manufacturers and consumers or trading companies have the right to choose any of certification schemes and a legal normative act. Under voluntary certification an applicant independently identifies requirements compliance with which a certification body has to confirm (decline). Accordingly, voluntary certification has a broader application than compulsory certification.

Moreover, a greater number of companies has tend of late to resort to voluntary certification to confirm compliance of their quality systems to the International Organization for Standartization (ISO) of 9000 series which allows them to be more confident in the quality of their products.

Certification schemes

Scheme number	Tests carried out in accredited testing laboratories	Inspection of production (quality control system)	Inspection of certified products (quality control system, production)
1	Type approval*	-	-
1a	Type approval	Analysis of situation with production	-
2	Type approval	-	Tests on samples taken from a seller
2a	Type approval	Analysis of situation with production	Tests on samples taken from a seller Analysis of situation with production
3	Type approval		Tests on samples taken from a manufacturer
3a	Type approval	Analysis of situation with production	Tests on samples taken from a manufacturer Analysis of situation with production
4	Type approval		Tests on samples taken from a seller Tests on samples taken from a manufacturer
4a	Type approval	Analysis of situation with production	Tests on samples taken from a seller Tests on samples taken from a manufacturer Analysis of situation with production
5	Type approval	Certification of production or certification of quality control system	Inspection of certified quality control system. Tests on samples taken from a seller and (or) from a manufacturer**
6	Consideration of declaration of compliance with attached documents	Certification of quality control system	Inspection of certified quality control system
7	Testing of product batch	-	-
8	Testing of each sample	-	-
9	Consideration of declaration of compliance with attached documents	-	-
9a	Consideration of declaration of compliance with attached documents	Analysis of situation with production	-
10	Consideration of declaration of compliance with attached documents	-	Tests on samples taken from a seller and (or) a manufacturer.
10a	Consideration of declaration of compliance with attached documents	Analysis of situation with production	Tests on samples taken from a seller and (or) a manufacturer. Analysis of situation with production

*Tests of produced goods on the basis of evaluating one or more representative samples.
**Necessity, scope of tests and where samples are to be taken are determined by a certification body on the basis of results obtained during inspection of certified quality control system (production).

Notes.
Schemes 1-8 are in effe3ct in foreign countries and classified according to ISO 9000. Schemes 1a, 2a, 3a and 4a are additional and modified versions of schemes 1, 2, 3 and 4. Schemes 9 – 10a are based on application of a supplier's declaration of compliance adopted by EU as part of conformity of compliance of products to statutory requirements. Inspection mentioned in the table is carried out upon issuance of a certificate.