FAS RUSSIA: LOCAL AUTHORITIES SHOULD CONTROL DISMANTLING OF ILLEGAL ADVERTISING STRUCTURES

It was stated by Deputy Head of the FAS Russia Karina Taukenova at a meeting of the Expert Council on Advertising Legislation

Owners of advertising structures installed without the permission of local authorities and without inclusion in the scheme for the placement of advertising structures receive unreasonable advantages over fair competitors and do not send payments to the budget of municipalities.

The Law on Advertising* does not allow the installation and operation of an advertising structure without appropriate permission. Such a structure is subject to dismantling on the basis of an order from a local authority. If the owner of an illegal advertising structure fails to comply with the order, the local administration must dismantle such a structure on its own**. At the same time, the local authority has the right to apply for reimbursement of funds spent on the work.

The FAS Russia reminds that failure of a local authority to comply with this obligation may fall under violations of the Law on Protection of Competition***. In this case, the FAS Russia issues a warning to the administration and initiates an antimonopoly case if it is not executed.

In 2023, competition authorities, when assessing compliance with antimonopoly legislation in 18 regions, issued 142 warnings to local authorities regarding 2,228 illegal structures. To date, 91 warnings regarding 295 structures have been executed.

Besides, the regional offices of the FAS Russia have initiated 17 cases of violation of the Law on Protection of Competition by local authorities. After their consideration, 12 decisions were made to recognize the actions of local authorities as a violation of the antimonopoly legislation.

The FAS Russia will continue to monitor the elimination of illegally installed advertising structures.

In addition, the members of the Expert Council discussed the draft of Fair practices of bloggers (influencers) in advertising and paid information developed by the FAS Russia. According to the Service, such practices will be an act of self-regulation by conscientious bloggers who do not want to mislead subscribers about the use of goods that appear on bloggers' resources.

The participants of the meeting provided comments and suggestions on improving practices, which will be taken into account by the FAS Russia in further elaboration of the document.

The members of the Expert Council also assessed the commercial of one of the leading banks for signs of violation of the Law on Advertising. The FAS Russia will take into account the opinion of experts when making a decision.

Reference:

* Part 10 of Article 19 of the Federal Law of March 13, 2006, No. 38-FZ “On Advertising”

** Parts 10, 21, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3 of Article 19 of the Federal Law of March 13, 2006, No. 38-FZ “On Advertising”

*** Part 1 of Article 15 of the Federal Law of July 26, 2006, No. 135-FZ “On Protection of Competition”