Helix laboratory service faces antitrust fine of up to 1 million rubles

According to the antitrust authority, the department received a complaint from a customer who received an email inviting her to take tests at Helix Express for 490 rubles. The woman recalled that she did not consent to receive the mail and contacted the FAS.

“The Advertising Law does not allow advertising without the consent of the subscriber. The department opened a case against the laboratory for violating the Advertising Law. If guilt is proven, the offender will face a fine,” they said in the press service of the FAS.

Helix commented on the start of the case. According to the deputy general director of the company, Daria Goryakina, advertising materials are sent only to the company’s own database, consisting of clients who have signed a consent to receive information at the time of the test, simultaneously with the contract of paid medical services. You can unsubscribe by clicking on the corresponding link in the letter. The complaining customer took a different route and contacted Helix to request that they disconnect him from emails, which was done by support.

Helix added that they attach great importance to the popularization of preventive medicine and disease prevention, which is why they share useful information in their emails. This fact, the company noted, has nothing to do with operational activities. This is the first time that the company has faced a claim of this type and will analyze all communication processes, he added.

As Anastasia Myrsina, senior lawyer at Verba Legal, explained to RB.RU, the penalty for such a crime is established in Part 4.1 of Art. 14.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO): a legal entity can be fined from 300 thousand to 1 million rubles, an official – from 20 thousand to 100 thousand rubles. According to the lawyer, the practice of violating article 18 of the Advertising Law is not the most numerous, but it is quite stable. Megafon was previously fined and Ozon was ordered to remove violations.

Another consequence of the violation could be the destruction of databases at the request of Roskomnadzor, the lawyer considers.

“When such illegal shipments are identified, the issue of lack of correct consent to the processing of personal data arises in parallel and Roskomnadzor can force, in the worst case, to destroy the collected databases. In addition, civil lawsuits for moral damage may be filed against said offenders,” the lawyer concluded.

Anastasia Kruglova, a lawyer at the De Jure law firm, noted that in practice it is usually more common to impose punishment in the form of a warning than an administrative fine; However, with the introduction of a new composition in the Code of Administrative Procedure Violations of the Russian Federation (violation of the requirements established by legislation on advertising for advertising distributed via telecommunications networks) in April 2024 and, Depending on each specific case, a person may be subject to an administrative fine.