Operators wind up wanted – Newspaper Kommersant No. 31 (7476) dated 02/18/2023

The government submitted to the State Duma a draft law on fines for operators for violations during the installation of systems of operational-search activities (SORM). The draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses have been developed since the summer of last year, fixed penalties for the first violation have disappeared from the previous version of the text of the Mintsifra, the minimum rate of the turnover fine for the second has increased by two orders of magnitude. Market participants argue that the changes will increase the burden on small telecom operators, and the idea of ​​SORM outsourcing proposed by the government causes distrust among them.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with project amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, prepared by the government and submitted on February 16 to the State Duma. The bill provides for the introduction of fines for telecom operators for violating the requirements for installing SORM. The fine is calculated from the annual proceeds received “from the sale of goods (work, services), on the market of which an administrative offense was committed”: for the first violation – from 0.001% to 0.003%, for the second – from 0.01% to 0.03%. It is proposed to set the minimum fine at the level of 1 million rubles, and to introduce them from January 1, 2024.

In June 2022, the Ministry of Digital Development submitted a draft amendment that proposed to penalize operators for the absence of SORM by ten thousandths of the revenue from the “provision of communication services.” In July, the Ministry of Digital Development presented a revised version, according to which it was proposed to make the fine for the first violation fixed (from 300 to 500 thousand rubles), and for the second – to reduce (from 0.0001% to 0.0005%, but not more than 0.0002 % of total revenue and not less than 1 million rubles). Then the ministry reported that they took into account market proposals (see “Kommersant” dated August 10, 2022).

In accordance with the current version of the bill, the amount of fines for the first violation may vary depending on the regions from 1.6–2 million rubles (in the Tula and Chelyabinsk regions, Chechnya) to 50 million rubles. and higher (in Moscow and the Moscow region), follows from the assessment of the Ministry of Digital Development given in the explanatory note.

In case of repeated violation, fines are estimated at 16–60 million and 500 million rubles, respectively. and higher. The proposed fines are “commensurate with the costs of the telecom operator for the purchase of the specified equipment”, stated in the explanatory note; for operators who cannot purchase equipment for SORM, the authors recommend connecting to the resources of another operator. Rostelecom, MTS, VimpelCom and Tele2 declined to comment to Kommersant, the Ministry of Digital and MegaFon did not respond to a request.

Turnover fines for non-connection of operators to SORM is one of three initiatives of the Ministry of Digital Transformation to tighten requirements for operators presented in 2022 (see “Kommersant” dated June 8, 2022). The ministry also proposed to raise the fee for obtaining a license for communication services from 7.5 thousand to 1 million rubles; In January, the State Duma adopted the corresponding amendments to the Tax Code in the first reading. The Ministry of Digital Development also developed amendments to the federal law “On Communications”, according to which new operators must coordinate with the FSB the scheme for building a network; The Ministry of Economy in August negatively assessed the document.

Cancellation of the limit of 500 thousand rubles. for the first violation is more critical than changing the method of calculating the fine, says Oleg Grishchenko, president of the Rosteleset association: “Small operators will have to pay at least a million rubles, which puts them at a disadvantage compared to large ones.” He noted that the cost of installing SORM equipment is significant for small companies. The adoption of the bill in the current version will lead to a reduction in the number of operators outside of Moscow, says Alexei Leontiev, head of the Association of Telecommunication Operators.

The idea of ​​connecting small operators to the SORM of large companies raises doubts among experts. “If the requirements of SORM-2 (control of the content of Internet connections.— “b”) can be easily implemented through another operator, then SORM-3 (traffic metadata storage system.— “b”) is an information system with personal data of customers. It turns out that in this case they are transferred to competitors,” says Mr. Grishchenko. On the other hand, large operators themselves do not develop proposals for the implementation of SORM requirements for third-party players, as this runs counter to their interests, Alexey Leontiev notes: “If they had a line of transparent proposals, the idea would work, but the situation is not like this “.

Yuri Litvinenko