Russia: Council of the Federation passes draft law on messenger operators' liability

DataGuidance confirmed, on 18 December 2017, with Sergey Medvedev and Ilya Goryachev, Senior Lawyers at Gorodissky and Partners, that, on 15 December 2017, the Council of the Federation passed Draft Law No.184271-7 on Amendments to the Code on Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation ('the Draft Law'). In particular, the Draft Law amends the Code on Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation of 30 December 2001 No. 195-FZ ('the Code') by introducing fines for messaging service operators' ('messenger operators') non-compliance with various legal obligations under the Federal Law of 27 July 2006 No. 149-FZ on Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information (‘the Law’), including collecting identification data of users prior to providing messaging services; ensuring the confidentiality of transmitted messages; providing, on request, user identi􀃒cation information to Russian authorities; and providing specific Russian authorities with the information required for decoding messages.

Medvedev and Goryachev outlined, "According to [the Draft Law], the non-observance by messenger operators of their legal obligations under the Law will entail the imposition of an administrative fine for legal entities of between RUB 800,000 (approx. €11,600) and RUB 1,000,000 (approx. €14,500). In addition, failure to abide by the legal requirements may result in the messenger operator being blocked."

The Draft Law must now be signed by the President of the Russian Federation.

You can track the Draft Law's progress, only available in Russian, here.

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