FAS HAS PREPARED FIRST AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON ADVERTISING TO ADJUST OUTDATED NORMS

The relevant draft law* of the authority is published on the portal of draft regulatory legal acts

Within the framework of the Working Group on the Implementation of the "regulatory guillotine" mechanism, FAS Russia considers and evaluates the reasonability of introducing amendments to the current legislation proposed by the business and expert community. These amendments to the Law on Advertising have been prepared on the basis of the proposals received.

Against the background of the growing digitalization of the population in Russia, the share of advertising distributed using messengers has increased. After installing applications of any organizations on a mobile device, for example, online stores, users begin to receive a large number of advertising messages from them through short push notifications. At the same time, now Law on Advertising does not contain both a ban and special requirements for the distribution of advertising in this way. In this regard, the authority proposes to legislate the possibility of advertising goods and services through push notifications only with the consent of users **. It will allow consumers to refuse to receive unsolicited advertising.

The authority also considers it necessary to adjust the requirements for advertising alcoholic beverages, which is distributed in TV and radio programs. At the moment, advertising of wine, as well as fortified and sparkling wine produced in Russia from grapes grown in the country can only be distributed with a warning about the dangers of its excessive consumption. At the same time, at least 10 % of the advertising area*** should be allocated to such a warning. Since the audiovisual content does not allow to fully calculate such an area, FAS Russia proposes to establish a minimum time interval for the demonstration of the warning in TV and radio programs ****. Therefore, in radio programs, he should be given at least 3 seconds, in TV programs – at least 5 seconds and 10 % of the frame area. If such advertising is distributed in other ways, then the warning will still have to be allocated at least 10 % of the advertising space.

Besides, the authority considers it necessary to exclude from the scope of advertising legislation reference information about the activities of companies, goods and services posted on the official websites of organizations and sellers of goods, as well as on aggregator sites of various information *****. It concerns, for example, a uniform list of products that is displayed according to user requests on aggregator sites, or the search engine issuing a list of hyperlinks to various sources of information. According to FAS Russia, such data are not advertising, since they do not form interest in any particular product and pursue exclusively reference and informational purposes.

FAS Russia will continue to analyze and study the proposals of the business and expert community on changing advertising legislation. Based on the results of their consideration, the list of amendments to the Law on Advertising can be expanded.

For reference:

* Draft Federal Law "On Amendments to Articles 2, 18, 21 of the Federal Law No. 38-FZ of March 13, 2006 "On Advertising"

** Regulation is introduced on the basis of the decision of the Working Group on the implementation of the "regulatory guillotine" mechanism and is reflected in paragraph 3 of Chapter II of Protocol No. 12 of 29.08.2022. It implies amendments to Part 1 of Article 18 of the Federal Law No. 38-FZ of March 13, 2006 "On Advertising"

*** Part 3 of Article 21 of the Federal Law No. 38-FZ of March 13, 2006 "On Advertising"

**** Regulation is introduced on the basis of the decision of the Working Group on the implementation of the "regulatory guillotine" mechanism and is reflected in paragraph 3 of Chapter II of Protocol No. 12 of 08/29/2022. It implies amendments to Part 3 of Article 21 of Federal Law No. 38-FZ of March 13, 2006 "On Advertising"

***** Regulation is introduced on the basis of the decision of the Working Group on the implementation of the "regulatory guillotine" mechanism and is reflected in paragraph 3 of Chapter II of Protocol No. 12 of 08/29/2022. It implies amendments to Part 2 of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 38-FZ of March 13, 2006 "On Advertising"