On amending the Russian Code of Administrative Offences and the Federal Law ‘On Enforcement Proceedings’

1. The new law has increased fr om one to two years the time period for presenting court decisions and the decisions of administrative authorities and their officers for enforcement in cases concerning breaches under administrative legislation.

This amendment applies to acts imposing administrative sanctions which come into force after 27 April 2011.

A resolution handed down by an officer of an administrative authority which imposes an administrative sanction comes into force on the expiry of a ten-day period fr om the date on which it is served or on which a copy of it is received by the person on whom administrative liability is imposed, as long as the decision was not appealed.

If it was appealed, then the sanction takes effect

• either after the decision of the higher authority comes into force in respect of the appeal against a resolution to impose an administrative fine (if there is no subsequent appeal to court, it will come into force on the expiry of a ten-day period from the date on which it is served or on which a copy of it is received by the person on whom administrative liability is imposed);

• or after the appeal court has passed a resolution upholding the court’s decision and rejecting the appeal of the person on whom administrative liability is imposed.

2. The law under discussion will also amend the provision of the Code of Administrative Offences which more clearly defines an instance of a breach covered by part 1, article 17.15 of the Code of Administrative Offences. Financial penalties will result from a failure to follow requirements of a non-monetary nature within the time frame established by a court bailiff after the resolution is passed allowing the enforcement fee to be collected (previously, this was after the enforcement fee was levied). The amount of the fine payable is between RUB 1,000 and RUB 2,500 for individuals, between RUB 10,000 and RUB 20,000 for officers of companies and between RUB 30,000 and RUB 50,000 for legal entities.

It should be remembered that a court bailiff carries out a resolution to levy the enforcement amount in cases wh ere the debtor has failed to comply with requirements contained in an enforcement document within the time established for it to do so voluntarily. In addition, the debtor must have failed to comply with an enforcement document which should have been complied with no later than within one day of its receiving the court bailiff’s resolution initiating enforcement proceedings. At that same time, the court bailiff will establish a new time frame for performance by the debtor.

If the debtor fails, without having a valid reason, to comply with the requirements contained in the enforcement document within the newly established time period, the court bailiff will impose on the debtor the fine stipulated by article 17.15 of the Code of Administrative Offences and will stipulate a new time period for compliance (part 2, article 105 of Federal Law No. 229-FZ “On Enforcement Proceedings” dated 2 October 2007).

Recommendations: When enforcing resolutions in cases concerning administrative offences, attention should be paid to the time period for them to come into force. It should be borne in mind that following the two-year period referred to above, resolutions which remain unenforced cannot then be enforced save wh ere the Code of Administrative Offences directly stipulates otherwise. Therefore sanctions arising from administrative liability may not be applied either to an organisation or to any of its officers once this two-year period expires. As far as resolutions passed before 27 April 2011 are concerned, the time period for administrative sanctions is increased to two years.

Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers have vast professional experience of representing companies and their officers in court and before administrative authorities in cases concerning administrative offences. They are willing to provide legal support on any issues you may face concerning the enforcement of court decisions and resolutions to impose administrative sanctions.

For further details, please contact:

in Moscow – Elena Ovcharova, Head of the Administrative Defence of Business Group, at (495) 967-00-07 or by e-mail;

in St Petersburg - Sergey Spasennov, Partner, Head of St. Petersburg office, at (812) 333-07-17 or by e-mail