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Section I. General Provisions
Article 1. Purposes and sphere of application of this Federal Law
1. This Federal Law shall regulate relations arising during the process of production, placement and distribution of advertising on the markets of goods, work, services (hereinafter - goods) of the Russian Federation, including the markets of banking, insurance and other services connected with the use of monetary means belonging to citizens (physical persons) and legal entities, and also securities markets.
The purposes of this Federal Law are to defend against unfair competition in the field of advertising, and to avert and cease inappropriate advertising capable of misleading advertising consumers or causing harm to the health of citizens, the property of citizens or legal entities, harm to the environment or to the honor, merit or business reputation of the indicated persons, and advertising that encroaches on the interests of society and the principles of humanity and morality.
2. This Federal Law is also applicable when activities completed outside the boundaries of the Russian Federation by legal entities or citizens of the Russian Federation in the field of advertising lead to the limitation of competition, or the misleading of legal entities and physical persons on the territory of the Russian Federation, or lead to other negative consequences in the goods markets of the Russian Federation.
3. This Federal Law extends to foreign legal entities and to foreign citizens and persons without citizenship (individual entrepreneurs registered according to the established procedure) who produce, place and disseminate advertisements on the territory of the Russian Federation.
4. This Federal Law does not extend to political advertisements.
5. This Federal Law does not extend to announcements by physical persons, including those made through the mass media that are not related to conducting entrepreneurial activity.
Article 2. Basic Concepts For the purpose of this Federal Law the following basic concepts shall apply:
Advertising/advertisement [peкламa] - distribution of information about a physical person or legal entity, goods, ideas or projects (advertising information) in any form with the help of any media, which is intended for an indeterminate group of persons and is aimed at forming or supporting interest in such physical persons, legal entities, goods, ideas and projects and facilitating the sale of goods, ideas and projects;
Inappropriate advertising [ненадлежащая реклама] - unfair, unauthentic, unethical, knowingly untrue and other advertisements that violate the requirements regarding their content, timing, location and method of dissemination as established by the legislation of the Russian Federation;
Counter-advertising [контрреклама] - a refutation of inappropriate advertising disseminated for the purpose of counteracting its consequences;
Advertiser [рекламодатель] - a legal entity or physical person who is the source of advertising information for the production, placement and subsequent distribution of advertising;
Advertisement producer [рекламопроизводитель] - a legal entity or physical person conducting entire or partial preparation of advertising information into a form ready for distribution;
Advertisement distributor [рекламораспространитель] - a legal entity or physical person that places and/or distributes advertising information by means of supplying and/or using property, including the technical means of radio broadcasting, television broadcasting as well as communications channels, transmission time and by other means;
Advertising consumers [потребители рекламы] - legal entities and physical persons to whose attention advertising is directed, or may be directed, and who are or may be affected correspondingly as a consequence of advertising.
Article 3. Legislation of the Russian Federation on Advertising
The legislation of the Russian Federation on advertising consists of this Federal Law and other federal laws passed/in accordance with it.
Relationships arising during the process of production, placement and distribution of advertising may be regulated also by edicts of the President of the Russian Federation, normative legal acts of the government of the Russian Federation and normative legal acts of federal executive agencies issued in accordance with this Federal Law.
Article 4. Author's Right and Related Rights to Advertising
Advertising may, fully or partially, be the objects of author's right and related rights. In this case, author's right and related rights are subject to defense in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.
Section II. General and Specific Requirements of Advertising
Article 5. General Requirements of Advertising
1. An advertisement must be recognizable without specialist knowledge or the application of technical means clearly as advertising immediately at the moment of its presentation regardless of the form or the media used for its dissemination.
The use of radio, television, video, audio and film products, as well as the use of printed products of a non-advertising nature for the purpose of attracting the attention of an advertising consumer to a distinct make (model, article) of good or to the manufacturer, user, or seller for the formation and support of interest in it without the appropriate prior communication of this (in particular, by noting «with rights of advertising» [на правах рекламы] is not permitted.
If radio, television, video, audio, film or printed products are distributed in parts (series), notice of the advertisement must also be repeated for the corresponding number of parts (series).
Mass-media information organizations are not permitted to take payments for placing advertising in the guise of informational, editorial or authored material.
2. Advertising on the territory of the Russian Federation shall be disseminated in the Russian language and, at the discretion of the advertiser, additionally in the official languages of the republics and native languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation. This statute does not apply to radio broadcasts, television broadcasts or printed publications produced exclusively in the official languages of republics or in the native languages of peoples of the Russian Federation or in foreign languages, nor to registered trade marks (service marks).
3. Advertisements for goods and for the advertiser itself are not permitted if the activity of the advertiser requires special permission (a license) but such permission (license) has not been received. Advertising for goods whose production is forbidden in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation is also not permitted.
4. Advertisements for goods subject to mandatory certification must be accompanied by the notice «subject, to mandatory certification» (подлежит обязательной сертификации).
5. Use in advertising of objects of exclusive rights (intellectual property) is permitted according to the procedure provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation.
6. Advertising must not incite citizens to violence against the population or to aggression, excite panic, or incite citizens to dangerous actions capable of bringing harm to the health of physical persons or threatening their safety.
7. Advertisements must not incite actions that violate environmental protection legislation.
Article 6. Unfair Advertising
Unfair advertising is advertising that:
- discredits legal entities or physical persons who do not use the advertised well;
- contains incorrect comparisons of the advertised good with the good (goods) of other legal entities or physical persons, or contains pronouncements or images which discredit the honor, merit or business reputation of a competitor (competitors);
- misleads the consumer in regard to the advertised good by means of imitation (copying or mimicry) of a general concept, text, advertising formula, images, musical or sound effects, the use in the advertisement of other goods, or by abusing the trust of the physical person or their inexperience, including in connection with the advertisement's lack of part of the relevant information.
Unfair advertising is not permitted.
Article 7. Unauthentic Advertising
An advertisement is unauthentic if it contains information that does not correspond to reality in relation to the following:
- those characteristics of a good, such as its nature, content, method and date of preparation, use, consumer characteristics, conditions for application, the presence of certification of conformity, certification marks and marks of conformity to state standards, quantity or place of origin;
- the presence of a good on the market and the possibility of its purchase in the indicated volume, period of time and place;
- the cost (price) of the good at the moment of dissemination of the advertisement;
- additional conditions of payment;
- supply, exchange, return, repair and servicing of a good;
- security guarantees, the period of service and the period of validity;
- exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity and equivalent means of individualization of the legal entity, the individualization of products and the fulfillment of work or services;
- the right to use state symbols (flags, coats of arms, anthems) and symbols of international organizations;
- official recognition, the receipt of medals, prizes, diplomas and other awards;
- supplying information on methods for acquiring an entire series of a good, if the good is a part of a series;
- results of research and experimentation, scientific terms and citations from technical, scientific and other publications;
- statistical information that should not be presented in a way that exaggerates its validity;
- reference to any kind of recommendation or to the approval of a legal entity or physical person, including reference to obsolete recommendations;
- use of terms in the superlative, including through the use of such words as «the most», «only», «best», «absolute», «sole» and other such words, if it is impossible to confirm them documentarily; /
- comparison with another good (goods) and with the rules and regulations of other legal entities or physical persons;
- reference to any kind of guarantee to the consumer of the advertised good;
- the actual amount of demand for a good;
information about the advertiser itself. Unauthentic advertising is not permitted.
Article 8. Unethical Advertising
1. An advertisement is unethical if:
- it contains textual, visual, or audible information that violates the generally accepted norms of humanity and morality through the use of offensive language, comparisons and images in relation to race, nationality, profession, social category, age group, sex, language, or the religious, philosophical, political or other beliefs of physical persons;
- it denigrates objects of art of national or international merit;
- it denigrates state symbols (flags, coats of arms, anthems), the national currency of the Russian Federation or other state or religious symbols;
- it denigrates any kind of physical person or legal entity, any kind of activity, or any profession or good.
Unethical advertising is not permitted.
2. Physical persons or legal entities who gain knowledge of the production or distribution of advertising containing information that denigrates his/her/its honor, merit or business reputation have the right to apply for protection of their violated rights through the appropriate court or arbitration court according to the procedure set out by the legislation of the Russian Federation, and also have the right to demand that the advertiser retract such advertising in the same way the advertising was first distributed if the advertiser does not fulfill this demand voluntarily.
Article 9. Knowingly False Advertising
A knowingly false advertisement is one that helps the advertiser (advertisement producer, advertisement distributor) intentionally to mislead an advertising consumer.
Knowingly false advertising is not permitted.
Article 10. Subliminal Advertising
The use of radio, television, video, audio, film and other products, as well as dissemination by other means for subliminal advertising, meaning advertising that has an unconscious influence on the perception of the consumer, including through the use of special video equipment (double sound recording) and other means, is not permitted.
Article 11. Particulars of Advertisements on Radio and Television Programs
1. The following radio and television programs shall not be interrupted by advertising:
- children's and religious programs;
- not more than once every 15 minutes and for not more than 45 seconds in educational programs;
- without the agreement of the copyright holder for radio - plays and feature films;
- live programs on the air, according to the list established by the Federal Law «On the Procedure for Covering the Activities of State Authorities in the State Mass Media»;
- any programs with a transmission time of less than 15 minutes;
- more than twice in any programs with a transmission length of between 15-60 minutes.
2. When using advertising as an on-screen addition, including by means of a «running line», the size of such advertisements must not be more than 7% of the area of the frame.
3. The dissemination of an advertisement for exactly the same good and, equally, the dissemination of an advertisement about an advertiser must not take place more than twice, with a total time period of not more than two minutes during every hour of air time, on a radio or television program on one frequency broadcasting.
4. Advertising must not exceed 25% of the broadcast volume of each twenty-four hour period on radio and television programs that are not registered as specializing in information and materials of an advertising nature.
Article 12. Particulars of Advertisements in Periodically Printed Publications
Advertisements must not exceed 40% of the volume of one edition of a periodically printed publication that does not specialize in information and materials of an advertising nature.
Article 13. Particulars of Advertisements in Cinema, Video and Information Services
1. Interrupting the demonstration of a film with advertisements, except during breaks between series (parts), in cinema and video services is not permitted.
2. Advertising may be presented in telephone information services only after communicating the information that the subscriber has requested.
3. Advertisements may be presented in payable telephone information services, computer or other services only with the agreement of the subscriber. The cost of such advertising must not be included in the cost of the information requested by the subscriber.
Article 14. Particulars of Outdoor Advertisements
1. The distribution of advertising in urban and rural settlements and other territories may done through posters, stands, illuminated boards and other technical means of stable territorial
placement (outdoor advertisements) according to the procedures provided for under Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article. Outdoor advertisements must not bear similarities to road signs and indicators, must not impede their visibility and must not impair the safety of traffic movement.
2. Distribution of outdoor advertisements in urban and rural settlements and in other territories is allowed contingent upon receipt of permission from appropriate local self - government agencies, in agreement with:
- for designated areas of land and roadside zones of highways outside the territory of urban and rural settlements: the appropriate management agencies for highways and the territorial subdivision of the state auto inspectorate of the federal executive agency of internal affairs;
- for urban and rural settlements: the territorial subdivision of the state automobile inspectorate of the federal executive agency of internal affairs;
- for designated areas of railroad: the appropriate management agency for railroads.
Payment for granting permission to distribute outdoor advertisements in consideration of the requirements laid out in Clause 1 of this Article shall be established by the appropriate local self-government agency with the agreement of the appropriate agencies as indicated herein. The amount of the payment must not exceed the amount of the expense incurred for conducting the work of granting permission to distribute outdoor advertisements, determining the locations of their placement and controlling the condition of the outdoor advertisement and technical means for their stable territorial distribution.
3. Distributing outdoor advertisements through installations on a territory (including on the territory of cultural monuments, ritual objects and protected natural areas), buildings, facilities or other objects, and determining the amount of and procedure for payments to be made for distributing the indicated advertisement shall be done on the basis of an agreement with the owner of the property or the person with proprietary rights to the property, if not otherwise stated by law or agreement in regard to the person with proprietary rights to the property, and contingent upon permission as provided for under Clause 2 of this Article.
Article 15. Particulars of Advertisements on Transport Means and Postal Services
1. Distributing advertisements on transport means shall be done on the basis of agreements with the owners of transport means or with persons with proprietary rights to the transport means, if a law or agreement does not provide otherwise in relation to the person with proprietary rights to the property.
Cases of limitation and prohibition of distributing advertisements on transport means for the purpose of ensuring the safety of traffic movement shall be determined by the authorized agency controlling the safety of traffic movement.
2. Distributing advertisements on postal services shall be carried out only with the permission of the federal executive authority to whose jurisdiction questions of postal communications are referred. The procedure for granting this permission and the amount of payment charged shall be established by the indicated body. The said payment must not exceed the cost of conducting the work of granting the permission for the dissemination of an advertisement. Payment shall-be made to the federal budget in full.
Article 16. Particulars of Advertisements for Various Types of Goods
1. Advertisements for alcoholic drinks, tobacco and tobacco products disseminated by any method must not:
- contain demonstrations of the process of smoking or the use of alcoholic drinks, and must not create the impression that the use of alcohol or the action of smoking has any important significance for attaining social, sporting or personal success, or for improving physical or
psychological condition;
- discredit abstinence from using alcohol or from smoking, contain information on any positive therapeutic property of alcohol, tobacco or tobacco products or represent the high content of properties in the product as a merit;
- appeal directly to minors or use images of physical persons under 35 years of age, or use the opinions or participation of persons who are popular among minors and persons under 21 years of age;
- be disseminated on radio or television programs between 7 am and 10 pm local time;
- be disseminated in any form on radio or television programs, cinema or video services or in printed publications for minors;
- be disseminated on the first or last pages of a newspaper or on the first or last pages or covers of a magazine;
- be disseminated at children's, scholastic, medical, sporting or cultural organizations, or within 100 meters of them.
The dissemination of advertisements for tobacco and tobacco products in all cases must be accompanied by a warning on the dangers of smoking. For radio and television programs, the said warning must be given not less than 3 seconds of air time, and in other forms of dissemination of an advertisement, the warning must be not less than five percent of the total area (expanse) of the advertisement.
2. Advertisements for medicaments, products with a medicinal purpose and medical technology that do not have permission for production and/or sale, and advertisements for methods of treatment, prevention, diagnosis, and rehabilitation that do not have permission for the furnishing of such services as granted by the federal executive authority in the field of health care are not permitted, including in cases where a patent has been received for an invention in this field.
Advertisements for medicines issued on the prescription of a doctor and advertisements for products with a medicinal purpose and medical technology, the use of which requires specialist training, shall be allowed upon consideration of the requirements provided for in the first paragraph of this clause, only in printed publications intended for use by medical and pharmaceutical employees.
3. Advertisements for all types of weapons, armaments and military technology are not permitted, with the exception of advertisements for war and service weapons, armaments and military technology as named in the list of military products, the export and import of which is carried out in the Russian Federation pursuant to a license, and also permitted civilian weapons, including those for hunting and sport.
Advertisements for civilian weapons, armaments and military technology that are on the list of military products, the export and import of which is carried out in the Russian Federation pursuant to a license, are not permitted if the indicated advertisement directly or indirectly discloses the technological production or methods of military and specialized application of weapons, armaments or military technology.
The dissemination of advertisements for permitted civilian weapons including hunting and sporting weapons is permitted only in periodically printed publications specializing in the dissemination of advertisements and in other periodically printed publications intended for users of permitted civilian weapons, and in places where hunting and sporting weapons are used.
The dissemination of advertisements for permitted civilian weapons through electronic means of mass media shall be permitted only after 10 pm local time.
Advertisements for fighting and service weapons and for armaments and military technology that are contained on the list of military products, the import and export of which is carried out in the Russian Federation pursuant to a license, shall be permitted only in publications indicated in the Law of the Russian Federation «On Weapons», and also in specialist exhibitions, sales and fairs held according to the procedure established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
Article 17. Particulars of Advertisements for Financial, Insurance and Investment Services, and for Securities
In respect of the production, placing and dissemination of advertisements for financial (including banking), insurance, investment and other services connected with the use of monetary means of legal entities and physical persons, and also of securities, the following is not permitted:
- citing in the advertisement quantitative information that does not bear a direct relation to the advertised services or securities;
- guaranteeing the size of dividends on common inscribed shares;
-advertising securities before the registration of their issue prospectus;
- presenting any kind of guarantee, promise or proposal on the future effectiveness (profitability) of activity, including by means of announcing the growth in the value of a security;
- failing to mention even one of the conditions of the agreement if an advertisement discusses the conditions of an agreement.
Article 18. Social Advertising
1. Social advertisements represent social and state interests and have the purpose of achieving a charitable goal.
Social advertisements must not refer to commercial organizations or individual entrepreneurs, or definite makes (models, articles) of their goods, or makes (models, articles) of goods that are the result of the entrepreneurial activity of a non-commercial organization.
2. The activity of legal entities and physical persons in the production and dissemination of social advertisements carried out free of charge and the transfer of property, including monetary means, to another legal entity or physical person for the production or dissemination of social advertisements are recognized as being for charitable aims and use of privileges provided under legislation.
3. Advertisement distributors that are organizations of the mass media are obliged to disseminate social advertisements presented by advertisers within a limit of five percent of air time (of the general printed area) per year as used within the framework established for advertising by the legislation of the Russian Federation on advertising.
Advertisement distributors that are not organizations of the mass media are obliged to disseminate social advertisements within a limit of five percent of the annual cost of services supplied by them for the dissemination of advertisements.
Advertisement producers are obliged to supply services for the production of social advertisements within the framework of five percent of the annual volume of advertisements produced by them.
Conditions concerning the timing of placement and means of dissemination of social advertisements as proposed by advertisers shall be obligatory for advertisement distributors if the advertiser applies to the advertisement distributor not later than one month prior to the proposed
period of dissemination of the social advertisement.
Payment for the production, placement and dissemination of social advertisements shall lake place on the basis of an agreement.
In the event of an increase in the volume of orders for production, placement or dissemination of social advertisements above the established limits of air time, printed area, production volume, placement and dissemination of such advertisements and in the event of disagreements, the order of production, placement and dissemination of social advertisements shall be determined according to the order of receipt by the advertisement producer and advertisement distributor of the offer of the advertiser.
4. Any activities of an advertisement producer and advertisement disseminator that impede the production, placement or dissemination of a social advertisement within the limits established in clause 3 of this Article are not permitted. In the event such activities take place, they will be subject to appeal in court in the due procedure.
Article 19. Sponsorship
For the purpose of this Federal Law the term sponsorship means the making by a legal entity or physical person (sponsor) of a contribution (in the form of property, the results of intellectual activity, the furnishing of services or the performing of work) to the activities of another legal entity or physical person (sponsored person) on the condition of dissemination of sponsored advertisements about the sponsor or its products.
Sponsorship contributions are recognized as payment for advertising, and the sponsor and the sponsored person are respectively the advertiser and advertisement disseminator.
A sponsor does not have the right to interfere in the activities of the sponsored person.
Article 20. Defense of Minors in the Production, Placement and Dissemination of Advertisements
1. During production, placement and dissemination of advertisements, for the purpose of defending minors from any abuse of their vulnerability or lack of experience, the following is not permitted:
- discrediting the authority of parents and teachers or undermining a minor's trust in them;
- suggesting directly to minors that they convince parents or other persons to acquire advertised goods;
-- attracting the attention of minors to the notion that the possession of this or that good gives them some kind of advantage over other minors, and also to the notion that a lack of these goods results in the opposite effect;
- mixing into the advertisement textual, visual or audible information that shows minors in dangerous places or situations;
- underestimation of the level of experience necessary for a minor to use a good. In the event that the results of the use of a good is shown or described, the advertisement must give information on what is actually attainable for minors of the age group for which the good is intended;
- the creation in minors of an unrealistic (distorted) idea of the cost (price) of a good for minors, in particular by means of the application of the words «only», «all of» and so forth, and by means of a direct or indirect indication that the advertised good is attainable within any family budget.
2. Textual, visual or audible use of examples of minors in an advertisement not directly relating
to a good for minors is not permitted.
Section III. Rights and Responsibilities of Advertisers, Advertisement Producers and Advertisement Disseminators
Article 21. Time Period for Holding Advertising Materials
The advertiser, advertisement producer and advertisement distributor are obliged to retain materials or copies containing advertising matter, including all ensuing changes, for a period of one year from the day of last dissemination of the advertisement.
Article 22. Availability of Advertising Information for the Development and Dissemination of an Advertisement
1. The advertisement producer and advertisement distributor have the right to demand, and the
advertiser shall be, in such event, obliged to provide documented proof of the authenticity of the advertised information.
2. If the activity of the advertiser is subject to licensing, then upon advertising a corresponding good, and also upon advertising the company itself, the latter is required to present, and the advertising agent and the advertising disseminator are required to request, presentation of the corresponding license or an appropriately certified copy of it.
Article 23. Responsibility of the Advertisement Producer To Notify the Advertiser of Circumstances That May Have Violated the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Advertising
The advertisement producer must in a timely manner notify the advertiser of the fact that compliance with the demands of the latter may lead to the violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation on advertising.
If the advertiser, despite a timely and substantiated warning by the advertisement producer, does not change its demand (demands) for a given advertisement, or fails to submit, at the request of the advertisement producer, documented proof of the authenticity of the information to be contained in the advertisement, or fails to remove other items that may make the advertisement inappropriate, then the advertisement producer may, in the established procedure, terminate its agreement and demand a full compensation for losses, if the agreement does not provide otherwise.
Article 24. Submitting Information to Executive Authorities
Advertisers, advertisement producers and advertisement distributors must, at the request of federal executive authorities (their territorial agencies) empowered to control the observance of the legislation of the Russian Federation on advertising submit within the established time period authentic documents, oral or written explanations, video and audio recordings and any other information necessary for the implementation of the legislation on advertising provided for by the Russian Federation.
Article 25. Public Offer To Conclude an Agreement in Advertising
1. The consequences of accepting an advertisement for an invitation to make offers, or public offers (a public offer to conclude an agreement in an advertisement) shall be determined in accordance with the civil legislation of the Russian Federation.
2. The advertiser must specify the duration period of the advertisement acting as an invitation to make offers if the advertisement lists at least one of the essential conditions, as well as those advertisements that act as public offers.
3. If the advertiser declines to conclude an agreement after receiving, in the established order, acceptance from the person to whom such a public offer was addressed, then such person has
the right to turn to the courts or arbitration courts with demands to conclude the agreement and to receive reimbursement for expenses caused by an unfounded refusal to conclude an agreement by an advertiser.
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