Currently, advertisers are obliged to comply with the Federal Law “On advertising” and to pay taxes on income received from the supply of advertising services. There are no mechanisms in Russia, however, to ensure centralised control over Internet advertising. This prevents an adequate assessment of the volumes of the Internet advertising market and enables advertising distributors to avoid paying taxes. This was the reason behind developing a draft law
[1] aimed at setting up a unified record-keeping system for Internet advertising in Russia. This document has been adopted by the State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament), approved by the Federation Council (the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament), and submitted to the Russian President for signing.
Under the law, starting from 1 September 2022, players of the Internet advertising market will be obliged to report information regarding such advertising (other than social advertising) to Roskomnadzor. The obligation applies to advertisers (persons who determine an advertised item or the content of advertising) and advertising distributors (persons who distribute advertising by any method and in any form). The composition of such information, as well as the procedure and timeframes for reporting it, will be determined by the Russian Government.
Companies will be able to report information either individually or through operators of advertising data. An operator or advertising data means an organisation licensed by Roskomnadzor and engaged in keeping records of advertising on the Internet. Information regarding Internet advertising will be kept for at least 5 years after it has been reported to Roskomnadzor.
The law provides that Internet advertising will bear a marking ‘advertising’ and an indication of the advertiser and/or a website containing information regarding the advertiser. An exception will be advertising posted on TV programmes and TV broadcasts, radio programmes and radio broadcasts transmitted over the Internet.
What to think about and what to do
Players of the Internet advertising market are recommended even at this stage to take steps to bring their operations into line with Russian legislation on advertising. Further, preparations should be made for complying with the requirement provided for by the law for reporting to Roskomnadzor information regarding Internet advertising.
Help from your adviser
Pepeliaev Group’s specialists are ready to provide comprehensive legal support to companies engaged in the sphere of Internet advertising.
The range of our services includes:
- Advising on specific aspects of advertising on the Internet;
- Auditing Internet services as to their compliance with the regulatory requirements;
- Representing a client when dealing with state authorities, as well as other services.
