Technology Law: Turkey’s ICTA Issued Regulation on Radio Equipment

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (“ICTA”) of Turkey has recently issued the Regulation on Radio Equipment numbered 2014/53/AB which entered into force on November 5, 2020 (“Regulation”), setting the general requirements for manufacture of radio equipment. The Regulation also sets forth principles and procedures regarding several matters on radio equipment excluding the radio equipment specially used for security, defense, and law enforcement purposes.

General Requirements

Pursuant to the Regulation, manufacturing of a radio equipment is subject to conditions as follows:

– Ensuring certain safety requirements,

– Meeting the sufficient level of electromagnetic conformity,

– Working compatible with other radio equipment via communications network,

– Providing connection to the suitable interfaces in Turkey and European Union (“EU”) member state countries,

– Supporting certain features for providing access to emergency services,

Accordingly, manufacturers of the software used in radio equipment submit the ICTA the necessary information indicating their conformity with above-mentioned general requirements. The Regulation further stipulates that, the ICTA permits only the radio equipment manufactured pursuant to this Regulation and used in accordance with its intended use to be put into service. On the other hand, the ICTA may issue further requirements regarding the use and put into service of radio equipment considering the protection of public health against harmful electromagnetic interference and disturbance.

Obligations of Radio Equipment Manufacturers

The Regulation defines the manufacturer as individual or legal entity that manufactures a radio equipment or makes it designed or manufactured and markets it under his name or trademark. It further brings out certain obligations to those manufactures including assuring that the radio equipment is designed and manufactured in accordance with the general requirements as described above, drafting a technical file including all the necessary information and data regarding assurance, issuing an ‘EU Declaration of Conformity’ and attaching ‘CE’ mark.

Besides, manufacturers are entitled to appoint in writing a representative to conduct their duties to be specified in the certificate of authorization and manufacturers cannot assign their authorized representatives to fulfill the obligations relating to assurance and Technical File.

It also stipulates that, in case of a breach of the provisions brought by the Regulation, administrative sanctions including administrative fines and cancellation of authorization determined under Electronic Communications Law numbered 5809 are applied.

Obligation to Inform

ICTA assigns certain bodies to conduct conformity assessment duties and notifies the European Commission (“Commission”) and EU member state countries the assigned bodies and also notifies the Commission through the Ministry of Trade regarding the procedures for evaluating, assigning, and monitoring conformity assessment bodies and monitoring notified bodies.

Şafak Herdem, Ezgi Ceren Aydoğmuş