FOCUS: Govt to untie sellers’ hands with no fine for lack of natl software

By Yekaterina Yezhova

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian government can relieve business from fines for the sale of smartphones, tablets, computers, and TV sets imported under parallel imports for the absence of pre-installed national software that the analysts say is a logical move to work legally.

“We support the initiative fully and believe that this important moratorium on fines will contribute to the spread of parallel import. We think the measure should stay valid till all the products brought to the country under such terms are sold to spare the sellers from possible responsibility,” Anton Guskov, PR director at the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Electronic and Computer Equipment (RATEK), told PRIME.

The Digital Development Ministry said on August 8 that it had submitted the bill, approved by the interested federal agencies, to amend the Administrative Code in order to comply with the rules of parallel import, currently legalized till the end of 2022.

The bill seeks to free from administrative responsibility the sale of the devices – put by the Industry and Trade Ministry on the list for parallel import and comprising such brands as Apple, Samsung, Sony, and Xbox in more than 50 categories – without the preinstalled national software programs.

Under the law in force since April 2021, the smartphones, tablets, computers, and Smart TV sets sold in the country must contain preinstalled programs, whose 2022 list includes services of Internet companies VK and Yandex and antivirus maker Kaspersky. The list is revised annually.

“Technically, the responsibility lies with the seller, not the manufacturer. The buyer is safeguarded by the law on consumer rights protection. The law rules that the gadgets sold to the end users must have preinstalled Russian software,” Guskov said.

“In a normal situation, the seller purchases, orders, or contracts devices from the manufacturer and says that they should have a list of preinstalled software – which in fact is an absolutely unique requirement existing only in our country – to respect the law. Under parallel import, which is the case now, the manufacturer can be unaware that its products will end up on the shelf in a Russian store. This is why it is technically impossible to make the required programs preinstalled on such devices.”

Now the sale of devices without the preinstalled Russian software programs is punished with a fine from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles for officials and from 50,000 to 200,000 rubles for legal entities.

“The punishment can be quite sizeable – it takes not only cash, but also time and entails poor reputation. Business should work on the legal terrain that should be in line with the current situation,” Guskov said.

Investment company Finam analyst Leonid Delitsyn said parallel import will be of no use for Russian sellers without the fine-lifting initiative.

“Our laws do not obstruct imports of gadgets without the maker’s permit but ban their sale because the producers have not installed Russian software on them. We cannot persuade them to do it because the manufacturers do not authorize the shipments,” Delitsyn told PRIME.

“It means that the programs are to be preinstalled either by an intermediary or a store. The task is extremely unattractive for the intermediary, because if the buyer is unhappy about the product, the store will have to claim compensation from the intermediary. For the store, installation of software is an alien activity because after that it will not be able to offer any guarantee from anyone.”

Whoever would undertake the task of preinstallation of national software, will do it for money, and the goods will cost more at a store than on the gray market where it will be sold without Russian software. “To sum up, parallel import is useless for stores without the initiative,” he added.

(60.8993 rubles – U.S. $1)

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