State Duma deputies approved in the second reading the introduction of fines for the sale of equipment without preinstalled Russian applications. This was reported on the website of the lower house of parliament. Corresponding amendments are proposed to be introduced into Article 14.8 of the Administrative Code (“On violation of other consumer rights”).

The State Duma proposes to fine officials from 30 to 50 thousand rubles for violation of the rules for selling devices, and from 50 to 200 thousand rubles for legal entities. Rospotrebnadzor will be responsible for considering cases and imposing fines. Unlike the pre-installation law, the amendments come into force three months later – from July 2021.

The changes are related to the upcoming entry into force of the law on the mandatory pre-installation of Russian applications on smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs with the Smart TV function. Vladimir Putin signed the document at the end of 2019, and its application was to begin in July 2020. Due to the pandemic, the entry into force of the law was postponed twice. At the last time, a deferral was given until April 2021.

In January 2021, the government approved a list of applications for installation. These include Yandex Browser, ICQ, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Kaspersky Internet Security and other software.

It is important to note that the law does not stipulate the procedure for preinstalling software on devices. Kommersant claims thatbecause of this, software creators cannot agree with manufacturers on the terms of cooperation. For example, the current version of the bill allows manufacturers to charge software developers for installation fees. In addition, the type of installation is not stipulated – full loading of the application into memory, placement of icons for downloading or an offer to install when the device is first started.