Mintsifra proposed to introduce a mandatory tax on traffic

The Ministry of Digital Development proposed to make the payment of Internet services to telecom operators for the passage of the “main” Internet traffic mandatory. This is stated in the “Strategy for the Development of the Communications Industry in the Russian Federation for 2024–2035”, prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development together with telecom operators, writes “Kommersant”.

However, the requirement will not apply to companies from the register of information dissemination organizers (ARI). These include the VKontakte, Zen and Odnoklassniki platforms (owned by VK), Yandex services, and Rutube video hosting, owned by Gazprom Media Holding. Thus, YouTube and online movie theaters may fall under the new requirements.

The idea of ​​fees from foreign Internet companies has been discussed for years. In 2022, the government discussed the introduction of traffic fees as a support measure. According to the operators, most often users consume content through Google services, including through the search engine and YouTube, as well as through the WhatsApp messenger. According to Alexey Byrdin, CEO of the Internet Video Association, official online cinemas account for no more than 15% of video traffic in Russia.

At the same time, Russian content providers are already paying for the services of telecom operators “either directly or through commercial CDN operators,” recalled Yaroslav Gorodetsky, CEO of CDNvideo. According to him, this initiative may be aimed at receiving royalties from foreign companies. Nevertheless, according to one of the sources in the IT market, it is unlikely that it will be possible to create a legislative mechanism in Russia that would allow receiving deductions from foreign companies.