Duma forbids sales of devices without Russia-made applications

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (PRIME) -- The State Duma, the parliament’s lower chamber, passed a bill on Thursday forbidding sales of electronic devices, like smartphones and computers, without pre-installed Russia-made applications from a government list.

The bill can enter in force on July 1, 2020.

The authors of the bill, Deputies Sergei Zhigarev, Vladimir Gutenev, Oleg Nikolayev and Alexander Yushchenko, believe that the law could protect the Russian business and reduce the number of infringements by large foreign companies.

A separate bill, expected to enter in force on January 1, 2021 introduces 50,000–200,000 ruble fines for companies and 30,000–50,000 ruble fines for their officials for selling equipment without the applications on the government list. The draft law has not passed the first reading so far.

(64.0213 rubles – U.S. $1)

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