New requirements for foreign large IT-companies

The legislation of the Russian Federation had not required foreign large Internet companies providing information services to Russian citizens to establish an incorporated legal entity in the Russian Federation authorized to act on behalf of the company, thus such companies remained outside the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.

Now owners of foreign information resources with a daily audience of more than half a million Russian users are required to create a branch office, representative office or authorized legal entity in the Russian Federation, register a personal account on the Roskomnadzor website, and create an electronic form for feedback for Russian citizens or organizations on their own websites.

The law also provides for a number of “coercive measures.” In particular, websites in search engines should label information non-complying with the law, not showing such information in search results, a ban on advertising websites banned in Russia and other advertisements targeted at Russians on these services.

More stringent measures include prohibition to receive transferred funds, accept payments from individuals and legal entities, as well as the partial and complete blocking of Internet resources in Russia.

Such law changes apply to such companies, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram and World of Tanks.

The Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast) earlier said that Russia “simply follow the examples of other states”. “That law offers the “guest”, who has settled well in our country and earns a lot of money, to live and to comply with Russian laws, not with “charters” hidden in one of the Western or other capitals,” stressed Vyacheslav Volodin.