The shields will remain in place – Business – Kommersant

The bill on a single operator of digital advertising structures and classifieds with ads of individuals, which was previously adopted in the first reading, may be rejected. The Council of the State Duma decided to submit the draft for a second reading this week in order to reject it at a meeting on November 8 or 9. The authors of the initiative insisted that it was designed to protect billboards and classifieds from cyberattacks, while opponents of the project feared the monopolization of markets. But even if the project is rejected, experts emphasize, we can expect new initiatives to control content on billboards.

The Council of the State Duma decided to bring the bill on a single digital advertising operator to the second reading this week, then to reject it at a meeting on November 8 or 9. It is reported Vedomosti citing two sources in the council of the lower house of parliament, the same information was confirmed by the interlocutor of Kommersant in the Council of the State Duma. The information was confirmed in Telegram channel Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov: “The Council of the State Duma recommended rejecting it (the bill.— “b”) without any discussion.

We are talking about the draft amendments to the law “On Advertising”, submitted to the State Duma on July 8 by Artem Kiryanov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, on July 15 it was adopted in the first reading.

The document implies that the management of all advertising screens, as well as classifiers, will be given to one market player.

The latter, according to the project, was to receive the right to develop a scheme for placing digital structures in all cities of Russia, operate these structures and charge for it, and also monitor the content of advertising. At the same time, it was assumed that he would be able to lease territories on preferential terms, without competition, for a period of up to 30 years. The authors of the amendments saw the initiative as a way to protect billboards and ad services from cyberattacks.

Many market participants spoke out against the initiative, fearing a negative impact on both the outdoor advertising market and the online ad services market. The Electronic Communications Association stated that a ban on the business of posting ads by all but a single operator could lead to the closure of a number of large Russian resources, which would entail a decrease in tax revenues to the state budget, loss of jobs and “degradation of the domestic IT sector.” Avito stated that “such initiatives can overnight lead to the destruction of the entire Internet industry.”

Many outdoor advertising operators also opposed the project by writing to various authorities. Gallery, in particular, stated that the project “puts the existing operators of outdoor advertising at risk of complete loss of business and the destruction of the outdoor advertising industry as such due to the virtual elimination of market competition.” Operators who opposed the bill united in the Union of Outdoor Advertising Operators (see Kommersant dated August 10).

The main supporter of the project was the Russ Outdoor Group of Companies, which Kommersant’s interlocutors called one of the contenders for the status of a new single operator of advertising structures.

The company “did not see the monopolization of the industry in this bill” and emphasized that the amendments are needed to combat attempts to hack digital advertising structures. Russ Outdoor, Gallery, Avito did not respond to Kommersant’s requests.

The decision of the Council of the State Duma, of course, “looks like a victory for operators and common sense,” Andrey Baiduzhiy, head of All-billboards.ru, believes: “Nevertheless, it’s too early to put an end to this story. The need for the state to control content and launch centralized social campaigns on thousands of digital billboards has not disappeared and is becoming more and more urgent.” Therefore, he believes, next year there may be new attempts to amend the law “On Advertising”. The main question here remains who will carry out this work, the expert adds: “Will it be a government agency, or, for example, a certain pool of authorized commercial structures will be created based on the model of marking Internet advertising.”

Valeria Lebedeva