The major trend in the regulator’s merger control approach remains quite liberal. This can be seen in both the regulator’s practice and legislative development. Fines for failure to meet the merger control requirements have not been increased.
In late February 2016 a draft law (No. 1004188-6) setting out to regulate the operations of so-called news aggregators was submitted to the State Duma. The reaction from the business community has been mixed, and public authorities are taking different views too. For example, German Klimenko, the Presidential Adviser on Internet Development, supported the initiative, while Deputy Minister Alexey Volin says the Ministry of Communications and Media does not support the draft law, which equates news aggregators and media.
On February 11, 2016 the Federal Law “On Ratifying the Agreement on Common Principles and Rules for the Circulation of Medical Devices (Medical Goods and Medical Equipment) Within the Framework of the Eurasian Economic Union” and Federal Law “On Ratifying the Agreement on Common Principles and Rules for the Circulation of Pharmaceuticals within the Framework of the Eurasian Economic Union” (Agreements) came into force.
In late 2015 and early 2016, Rospatent registered red, green and blue colours as trademarks for Sberbank, Gazprom and MTS. The companies have, therefore, secured their right to the particular shades: Sberbank now has “green, which is Pantone 349”, MTS has “red, Pantone 485”, and Gazprom has “blue, Pantone 300CV”.
On 29 December 2015, the Russian President signed the Federal Law “On Arbitration in the Russian Federation” (“The Law on Arbitration”) and Federal Law “On Amendments to Certain Laws of the Russian Federation…” providing for fundamental reform of domestic arbitration.
Leaders League publishes an interview with Mikhail Kazantsev.
Evgeny Raschevsky, Dmitry Dyakin, Dmitry Kaysin and Victor Radnaev authored the Commercial Arbitration Russia chapter of the know-how section of Global Arbitration Review.
On November 3, 2015, the President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law № 297-FZ on Jurisdictional Immunities of Foreign States and Property of Foreign States in the Russian Federation (the Law). The Law will take effect from January 1, 2016 (Art. 18). By passing the Law, Russia has endorsed the restrictive theory of sovereign immunity entirely, and ruled out the dichotomy which exists between the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Commercial Procedure.
On October 12, 2015, Federal Law of July 13, 2015 No. 212-FZ “On the Free Port of Vladivostok” (the “Free Port Law”) entered into force.
Zakon publishes an article by Dmitry Stepanov.
European and US investors may have a substantial advantage when buying apartments in the centre of St. Petersburg. The development comes as the result of favourable RUB/EUR/USD exchange rates and the benefits provided by the city administration for investors and people living in communal apartments.
Anna Numerova and Elena Kazak became the authors of the Russia chapter in The Merger Control Review.
Elena Gavrilina, Yuri Savvin and Anton Alekseev became the authors of Construction 2016 Russia chapter.
Russia’s Federal Law “On Individuals’ Voluntarily Declaring Assets and Accounts (Deposits) with Banks and on Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” - a law broadly known as the “Capital Amnesty Law” - was adopted on June 8. Under the amnesty, taxpayers are able to declare their foreign assets by filing a special declaration with Russia’s tax authorities. Meanwhile, the state guarantees a waiver of tax proceedings related to the assets declared. Mikhail Kazantsev, a member of the taskforce charged with developing the draft law and a partner at EPAM, whose experts deal with applying the capital amnesty and act as public business ombudsmen, spoke with RAPSI about what had come out of it and how it might operate in practice.