Market surveillance is the regulatory oversight used to check whether products, systems, or services placed on the market meet legal and technical requirements. In digital security and AI governance, it means authorities verify that vendors follow rules on safety, documentation, transparency, and accountability before and after deployment.
This matters because compliance is not only a legal formality; it is a control mechanism that can reduce security and safety risk. Regulators may review technical files, risk assessments, logs, labeling, and post-market reports to see whether a system behaves as declared. In cyber security, market surveillance can uncover weak access controls, missing audit trails, or undocumented changes that make a product harder to trust. For defenders and vendors, strong logging, version control, and clear ownership make it easier to demonstrate compliance and respond to inspections.