Insights

On 13 December 2017, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading the draft Federal Law aimed at the legalisation of remote retail trade in medicines. The right to conduct remote retail trade (including trade via the Internet) in the OTC medicines for medical and veterinary use shall be granted to pharmacy organisations and veterinary pharmacy organisations, respectively.

As of 1 January 2018, the Instruction No. 181-I of August 16, 2017 of Bank of Russia establishing the procedure for the submission by Russian residents and non-residents to authorised banks of supporting documents and information on the performance of currency transactions, as well as unified forms of accounting and reporting on currency transactions, the procedure and timing of their submission becomes effective. In particular, the requirement to submit a transaction passport by Russian residents with an authorised bank is cancelled, instead, the procedure for registering foreign trade contracts with banks with unique numbers being assigned to them is established.

The Federation Council approved on 22 November 2017 the draft Federal Law amending the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" and the Law of the Russian Federation "On Mass Media" for the purposes of the regulation of foreign media in Russia.

Federal Law No. 216-FZ of 29 July 2017 "On Innovative Scientific and Technological Centers and on Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation", which entered into force on 10 August 2017, regulates relations arising in connection with establishments of innovative scientific and technological centres (ISTC) and their functioning.

GRATA International Moscow office contributed to the International Comparative Legal Guide series - Franchise 2018 with the chapter on Russia. 

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) held a seminar on the organisation of activities of web publications with the participation of the Roskomnadzor legal experts and the representative of the RU/RF Domain Coordination Centre. 

On July 30, 2017 the amendments to the Federal Laws "On Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation" and "On the Procedure for Making Foreign Investments in Companies of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security" came into force, in particular, clarifying the notion of a foreign investor and supplementing the list of activities of strategic importance for the national defense and state security, as well as establishing new consequences of non-compliance by foreign investors of the obligation to submit information to the competent authority on the acquisition of 5 percent and more of the shares (stakes) of the strategic company.

The Federal Law No. 242-FZ dated 29 July 2017 amended certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the use of information technologies in the area of health care providing, in particular, for features of medial aid using telehealthcare technologies, e-document flow in the medial aid provision and the establishment of the Unified State Information System in the healthcare sector.

On 30 July 2017, amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations of the Russian Federation introduced by the Federal Law No. 175-FZ dated 18 July 2017, came into force. The amendments establish special administrative liability for the failure of the manufacturer (contractor, seller, or a person acting as a foreign manufacturer) to take measures for harm prevention in case of circulation products that do not meet the requirements of technical regulations.