Conformity of vehicles in the Russian Federation

90. The representative of the Russian Federation recalled his previous interventions on this topic at the March 2025 session of WP.29 and at the February 2025 session of ITC and reported that the conducted tests had revealed cases of non-compliance of trucks approved pursuant to UN Regulations Nos. 51, 58 and 73 in Spain. He said that, based on Article 4 of the 1958 Agreement and national legislation, the Russian competent authorities had banned the sales on non-compliant vehicles in the country. At the end of March 2025, the type approval authority of the Russian Federation sent an email notification to the Spanish approval authority about the non-conformity with UN Regulations of trucks for which type approvals had been granted in Spain. In May 2025, the notification was repeated through diplomatic channels. However, up to date, no response had been received from the Spanish approval authority about the measures taken to eliminate the identified product non-conformity.

91. The representative of Spain confirmed the receipt of the Russian notification at the end of May and pointed out that the competent Spanish authorities would carry out ad-hoc audits of the truck manufacturer for Conformity of Production (CoP) and quality control procedures. Following that, Spain would provide feedback to the Russian authorities and WP.29. The representative of Spain also stressed the importance of market surveillance, because type approval and CoP procedures are based on a limited number of samples. He also mentioned that the first email notification from the Russian Federation went astray, due to an outdated email contact address of the Spanish authorities.

92. WP.29 took note of the above information and invited the competent authorities of Spain and the Russian Federation to cooperate on the reported cases, with the aim to restore the product conformity with the UN Regulations. WP.29 reminded Contracting Parties to the 1958 Agreement about the obligation to adhere to the provisions of the Agreement, including those on restoring the conformity of approved products. The Chair also pointed out the importance of regular updating of the list of contact points for the type approval authorities.

Safety of airbags

93. The representative from France updated WP.29 on the topic of faulty airbags (WP.29-196-23). He recalled the previous discussions at the March 2025 session of WP.29 and the May 2025 session of GRSP (see ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/77 and informal document GRSP-77-32) and briefed WP.29 on the latest recall campaigns in France. He requested interested parties to express their position during the next GRSP meeting in December 2025, in order to have a decision on the way forward to prevent similar risks in the future. The Chair of IWG on PTI stated that his group would also address this issue.

94. WP.29 further discussed the challenges of recall campaigns such as this one, with a huge volume of affected cars from multiple countries of manufacture, registration and ownership. It also discussed the issue of consumer protection by giving them access to full information on models and chassis numbers of vehicles affected by recalls. The representatives of the United States referred delegates to the NHTSA.gov website for more information. The representative of CITA offered their good offices for recall campaigns.