The transition to the mandatory marking will be carried out in several stages:

• registration in the Sign of Honour system;
• getting the equipment necessary for working with codes;
• working with the product stocks;
• mandatory manufacturing of the products with Data Matrix;
• subsequent ban on production, import, trade, and turnover of unmarked products.

The pilot project on footwear marking was in effect from June 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. At the experimental stage, more than 23 thousand companies became its participants; more than 75 million digital codes for marking and tracking of shoes were issued. Kari, Sportmaster, Detsky Mir, Zenden, and Adidas were the leaders in the number of codes ordered.

“The industry unions have carried out serious work with the market participants to clarify the objectives and prospects for introduction of the mandatory marking,” Anna Orlova, Head of Working Group on Marking of the Retail Companies Association (AKORT) commented. “The key players in the footwear market support the introduction of marking, and they took an active part in the experiment. Now we can say that the system is in a high degree of readiness, and the market participants have tested the proposed technologies.”

On June 27, 2019, Russia also launched an experiment on marking of clothing and some other products of the textile industry. It will last until November 30, 2019.

Please check the comments of an expert on this topic in the Expert Opinion column of our Newsletter.