Report: Neighbors chide Russia’s domestic soft preinstallation law

MOSCOW, Dec 23 (PRIME) -- Some of the other member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) have opposed Russia’s law imposing obligatory preinstallation of its domestic software on mobile devices, computers and smart TV sets, business daily Vedomosti reported late on December 22 on its website.

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry press secretary Yevgeny Novikov said the software preinstallation obligation rests with retailers. The corresponding amendments were signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and will take effect on July 1, 2020.

According to representatives of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the amendments contradict the treaty on the union, the World Trade Organization’s general agreement on trade in services and the technical regulation of the Customs Union and can limit a turnover of technically sophisticated goods from the other EAEU states to Russia.

The amendments can also undermine functioning of the union’s internal markets, they also said, according to a protocol of a December 13 meeting of the internal markets department of the Eurasian Economic Commission.

A commission spokesperson said the entity is summing up opinion of the union’s members and analyzing risks after which it will make a conclusion.

The Russian ministry’s press secretary Novikov said the law on software preinstallation does not contradict the EAEU treaty.

“The last word will be said by by-laws: a list of goods to be equipped with software, a list of software and an order of preinstallation. The Digital Development Ministry together with the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Federal Service for Oversight of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare will closely watch that interests of the Eurasian partners would not be breached and that software developers from the union’s countries would have a non-discriminatory access to the Russian market,” he said.

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