Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that regulates the placement of social advertising on the Internet. The document was posted on April 30 on the official portal of legal information.
The law introduces a mandatory quota of 5% for the placement of this type of advertisement. Similar regulations are already in place for television and banner advertisements. At the first stage, the document will touch upon the largest services – Yandex, Google, Mail.ru, Rambler and Facebook.
The law provides for the creation of a monitoring system for Internet sites and a single placement operator. The non-profit organization-operator will receive forecasts of advertising volumes from advertising distributors and place social content within a five percent share. To do this, the organization will have to keep a record of advertising formats and areas that will be provided by the owners of information resources, and annually report on the placement of social advertising.
In addition, it is proposed to extend the requirements to owners of information resources that distribute advertising that is targeted at the Russian audience and has a daily audience of over 100 thousand users. Exceptions apply to media sites.
It is noted that the operator of social advertising is determined by the Russian government on the recommendation of the Ministry of Digital Industry of the Russian Federation. The Cabinet of Ministers is also empowered to approve criteria for classifying information as social advertising. Additional restrictions are imposed on the operator. In particular, it is prohibited to transfer data received from advertising distributors and operators of advertising systems to third parties, to use it for purposes not provided for by the advertising law, as well as to charge advertisers for the distribution of social advertising.
On September 29 it was reported that Yandex, Mail. ru Group and Rambler Group, as well as the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Internet Development Institute (ANO IRI) signed a memorandum on social advertising on the Internet. It was noted that the document is intended to help Russian non-profit organizations in promoting their socially useful initiatives on the Web.