Lawyers saw the risk of “double pricing” for online advertising by advertisers and intermediaries.

We are talking about amendments to the law “on advertising”, which, according to a source of the newspaper, is now being discussed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko. From the document it appears that advertising distributors and advertising agents must contribute 3% to the budget of the quarterly income received from the distribution of Internet advertising.

Lawyers interviewed by Kommersant fear that companies will have to pay twice the fee. According to the current wording of the bill, within the framework of viewing a certain advertisement, “both the advertising platform and the agent will pay 3% of the money they receive,” noted Igor Gribkov, head of the tax practice of the Studio of EDB lawyers.

Advertising market sources told Forbes in mid-November that authorities were preparing a new rate for the distribution of online advertising. The magazine’s interlocutors argued that the rate could range between 2% and 5% and that it would begin to operate in April 2025.

A few days later, RBC received an updated version of the bill, in which the tariff is 3%. Federal radio and television channels “First”, “Russia 1”, “Russia 24” and others will be exempt from paying it. The money raised is expected to go to supporting software developers in the Russian software registry and to “support the development and operation of information resources.” Their list will be established by the government.

The new tariff will lead to an increased load on advertising platforms, said Stepan Gevorkyan, director of advertising acquisitions at Centra. In his opinion, online advertising prices will increase, since “the costs will have to be included in the price list.” Yandex claims that the measure will violate free competition in the advertising market. VK and Ozon declined to comment to Kommersant.