In mid-April, a bill on fines for violating the law on advertising labeling was submitted to the State Duma. The unified system for accounting for Internet advertising was launched in 2022, but has only been tested so far.
Experts interviewed by RB.RU believe that the share of the gray advertising market after the introduction of fines should decrease by 30-40%, but sanctions will not ultimately solve the problem – any unscrupulous market player will find a way around any of the blockades. In addition, small market participants may also suffer.
The Internet Advertising Labeling Law entered into force on September 1, 2022. All participants in the advertiser-advertising agency-advertising distributor chain are obliged to provide information about advertisements placed from the network to a Unified Registry Internet Advertising (ERIR) special through Advertising Data. Operators (ADD).
At the same time, the law did not specify the measures of liability for violations and errors. In mid-April 2023, a bill on penalties for violating the law on advertising labeling was submitted to the State Duma:
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For failure to provide data on advertising distributed on the Internet, a fine for citizens will be from 10 thousand to 30 thousand rubles, for officials – from 30 thousand to 100 thousand rubles, for legal entities – from 200 thousand to 500 thousand rubles.
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Penalties for distributing advertising without an identifier (token) or for violating the requirements for its placement: 30-100 thousand rubles for citizens, 100-200 thousand rubles for officials and 200-500 thousand rubles for legal entities.
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And the fine for violating the OSA law will be from 100 to 200 thousand rubles for officials and individual entrepreneurs, and from 300 to 700 thousand rubles for legal entities.
Yandex, like ORD, now automatically tags all ads placed with the help of Direct for free, the company’s press service told RB.RU. According to Yandex’s own data, this is more than 300,000 advertisers every month.
Ozon also maintains a free rate, the companies did not have technical difficulties in placing the data, the site’s press service reported. The number of connected partners was not disclosed there.
The head of the 4D communications agency, Natalya Belkova, has not yet seen any particular problems in the transfer of data to the Research Department. However, she noticed the nuances when working with VKontakte and Telegram.
According to her, “VK” independently transmits data to the Investigative Department and does not require reports at the end of the month. This scheme works if you target ads or place them through a marketplace platform, but not all communities are represented there.
The company has had instances where it directly contacted the group’s admins to place ads, only to hear that they didn’t label the ads “even for the biggest brands.” The agency does not work with such sites, despite the fact that it “restricts choice.”
When working with Telegram 4D, all data is entered manually via MediaScout. According to Belkova, now a subscription there costs 100 rubles a month. Such an amount is supposed to be valid only for a trial period, until the practice with fines appears.
Yulia Belkova found it difficult to estimate how much a violation of the law should cost a company to be effective.
“There is a rule, you know it and the consequences, you must follow it. There is income, there is a reputation. Another thing is whether the fines will apply not only to purely promotional materials, but also to PR stories, for example, informational press releases. As long as the criteria are unclear and the law is based on the subjective assessment of an individual FAS employee, we see big risks for the public relations industry,” the expert noted.
The founder of the Academy of Business and Strategic Marketing Yulia Korchagina-Ozcan believes that the share of the gray advertising market should decrease by 30-40% after the introduction of fines.
At the same time, fines will not fully solve the problem – any unscrupulous market player will find a way to bypass any of the blocks, adds Maxim Glushkov, CEO of the Labarum law firm.
According to Yulia Korchagina-Ozcan, conscious market participants can suffer the proposed fine in case of mistake, negligence or carelessness. Therefore, the process of fighting unfair advertising must become permanent, respond to new methods of circumvention, stressed Maxim Glushkov.
The lawyer also suggested that repeat fines would be more significant, as with any crime. Furthermore, it is theoretically possible to develop a mechanism to increase the cost of displaying advertising for some time after the infringement. Conventionally, people who have broken the law pay 10% more for the same number of impressions for six months, he concluded.
Maxim Glushkov also warned that conscious market participants could also suffer, especially small companies whose turnover does not allow them to hire a lawyer. These companies may unknowingly mislabel ads. The lawyer is sure that there will be many such cases at the beginning, so it is important that the tickets are issued fairly and each case is considered individually.
In early May, industry associations – RAEC, AKAR, ARIR, ABA and the Interregional Public Organization “Advertising Law” – also stated that the bill “needs significant improvement”, reported AdIndex. They proposed outlining liability for varying degrees of violation of the law, adding a penalty as a warning, and setting the bill’s effective date no earlier than 2024.
Learn more about how to tag ads under the new rules and who can.
Author:
karina pardaeva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
