Government discusses ban on parallel imports of Samsung and LG smartphones

Ban on Parallel Import of Mobile Devices Samsung and LG are discussing the Ministry of Digital Development with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. This was announced by the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev on the margins SPIEF.

“We are discussing with the Ministry of Industry and Trade the introduction of a ban on the parallel import of heavy computer equipment (meaning servers and storage systems) from unfriendly countries (for example, HP and IBM), which has competitive Russian counterparts, as well as a ban on the parallel import of smartphones, mobile devices Samsung and LG, because there are Chinese counterparts that are in no way inferior, ”said the minister (quote by Interfax).

Shadayev emphasized that restrictions are being discussed only in relation to storage products, servers, etc., which have analogues of Russian production or production of friendly countries.

In September 2022, prices for servers and data storage systems (SHD) increased by 30-50% compared to January, told Vedomosti, Director of Softline Cloud Solutions Dmitry Isaev. The growth in the cost and delivery time of server equipment was also confirmed by representatives of Disilodzhik, Selectel, Promobit and Norsi-trans.

June 2 this year at the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed discussion of the possibility of limiting the parallel import of radio electronics. Now, according to the ministry, they are collecting “reasonable proposals for specific brands, confirmed by the corresponding figures for the production of similar domestic goods.” The agency explained this by “optimizing the list of brands that are allowed to be imported into the country through parallel imports.”

On the same day, Kommersant informedthat the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Russian manufacturers of equipment can limit the parallel import of more than 20 foreign brands of computing electronics into Russia. The list of such brands, according to the newspaper, includes Acer, Asus, MSI, Palit and others.

Parallel import involves the importation of original goods into the country without the permission of the copyright holder or manufacturer. In the Russian Federation, this measure began to operate on March 29, 2022 in response to Western sanctions. In September the mechanism was extended for 2023