Insights

On 27 July 2017, the Federal Service for Supervision in the Area of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) held a traditional open day coincided with the date of adoption of the Federal Law No. 152-FZ 'On Personal Data'. 

On 19 July 2017, the Federation Council approved a draft law on the Adoption of a Protocol on Amending the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under which TRIPS is supplemented with the provisions regarding the extended application of the mechanism allowing WTO member states to issue compulsory licenses for the production of generic medicines for export and, where required, to use immunity if their actions are challenged by other WTO member states.

As of July 12, 2017, amendments to the Arbitration Procedural Code of the Russian Federation and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation come into force, providing, inter alia, for

On 27 June 2017,  the Order dated 24 May 2017 became effective which sets the criteria for assessing materials and/or information required to take decisions by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation and Rospotrebnadzor on  the inclusion of domain names and(or) pages indexes of Internet sites, as well as network addresses that allow identifying Internet sites containing prohibited information, in the Unified Register of Domain Names and(or) Page Indexes of Internet Sites, as well as Network Addresses allowing to Identify Internet Sites that Contain Information Prohibited for Dissemination in the Russian Federation. 

On 1 July 2017, amendments to the Federal Law 'On Privatisation of the State and Municipal Property' and the Federal Law 'On the Procedure for Foreign Investment in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security' became effective, according to which  offshore companies and legal entities controlled by an offshore company or a group of entities, which includes an offshore company are not permitted to purchase state and municipal property in Russia. 

On 1 June 2017, the Federal Law No. 92-FZ dated 1 May 2017 came into force that, in particular, established two categories of Russian banks depending of a list of permitted operations: banks with a universal license and banks with a basic license, as well as provided for new requirements for the minimum amount of the charter capital of credit institutions. 

The Decree No. 244 dated 31 May 2017 of the President of Russian Federation abrogated the following economic measures against Turkey

The trial that lasted over two years in connection with the violation by Google of Russian antitrust law resulted in the conclusion in April 2017 of a settlement agreement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia).

GRATA International Moscow office experts became the contributors of the 2017 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Data Protection published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London

On 13 May 2017, the Direction of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation No. 4335-U dated 31 March 2017 came into force that establishes the threshold values for transactions of joint stock companies and limited liability companies, in the event of excess of which the transactions the price or book value of the property being the subject matter of which does not exceed 0.1% of the book value of the companies' assets may be deemed interested party transactions.