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The deputies submitted to the State Duma a draft law on limiting foreign ownership in structures engaged in commodity market research. The co-author of the amendments, Anton Gorelkin, said that the initiative is directed against GfK and Ipsos, whose data is allegedly used to adjust sanctions against Russia. Analysts who will be allowed to work in the Russian Federation must report to the Federal Antimonopoly Service on their research. Experts warn that as a result of the adoption of the amendments, foreign companies may completely leave the country and market participants will be left without adequate analytics.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with draft amendments to the law “On the Fundamentals of State Regulation of Trade Activities”, submitted to the State Duma on July 31 by deputies from United Russia, the Liberal Democratic Party, Just Russia – For Truth, and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The authors propose to limit foreign ownership of companies that study the structure of the commodity market to a level of 20% and prohibit this for structures without a legal entity in the Russian Federation. Analytical companies that receive permission will have to comply with the requirements for the processing of “counter-sanction information” (data on transactions that may entail the introduction of restrictions), not comply with sanctions against the Russian Federation and not create conditions for the publication on the Internet of “inaccurate data on the structure of the commodity market “.

Companies with a revenue of at least 30 million rubles fall under the regulation. per year, providing services for the collection, processing and analysis of data on the structure of the Russian commodity market.

Such companies will have to annually submit a research report to the FAS and publish it, disclose methods, store and process data on the territory of the Russian Federation. If the amendments are adopted, the requirements will come into force on March 1, 2024. The FAS is ready to “promptly consider the bill if it is received,” Kommersant was told in the service.

One of the authors of the document was Anton Gorelkin, known for initiatives to limit foreign capital in Internet companies, in particular, in ad services (see below). “Kommersant” dated December 21, 2022). In his Telegram channel, the deputy declaredthat the data of analytical companies that continue to work in the Russian Federation are “with a high degree of probability” used to adjust the sanctions. Mr. Gorelkin specified that Ipsos, GfK and Nielsen continue to operate in the country. The American The Nielsen Company is not actually represented in the Russian Federation, unlike NielsenIQ (aggregates data on sales of retail chains in the Russian Federation), which separated in 2021.

NielsenIQ told Kommersant that they were studying the document: “The authors did not contact us.” The Russian office of Ipsos declined to comment, GfK did not respond. After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, IDC and Gartner stopped publishing data on the Russian market, and GfK stopped updating the website for the Russian Federation. In December 2022, the provision of market research services to persons from the Russian Federation was included in the EU sanctions package.

Restrictions on foreign capital introduced in Russia in other areas of the economy have already been reflected in the work of analysts. So, in 2016, due to amendments to the media law, which, among other things, introduced a limit on the participation of foreigners in the TV audience meter, the British advertising holding WPP sold its stake in TNS Russia (now Mediascope) to VCIOM.

Foreign research companies that are still working in the Russian Federation, if the amendments are adopted, “may be cut off from conducting research within the country,” says Olga Belenkaya, head of the macroeconomic analysis department of FG Finam.

Strategic Development Director, F+tech | Marvel” Mikhail Fechin notes that in Russia there is now no alternative to large foreign analytical companies, and if they leave, the business may suffer losses: “The bill will affect not only the corporate sector, but also the consumer sector, since the quality and accuracy of analytical forecasts will greatly decrease.”

The impact of the amendments on the data sets available in Russia will differ in different industries, says Mikhail Burmistrov, head of Infoline-Analytics: “But any restrictions in one way or another affect the amount of information available and increase the requirements for the expertise and qualifications of research companies.” The authors of the bill, in his opinion, may be concerned, among other things, about how independent NielsenIQ and The Nielsen Company are from each other. According to Mr. Burmistrov, the initiative “has a certain logic, given the tough sanctions pressure,” although “there are also risks associated with increased regulation.”

Yuri Litvinenko