The State Duma received conflicting bills on regulating outdoor advertising

In just a few days, two essentially opposing bills on regulating outdoor advertising were introduced into the State Duma. The first is about the extension of municipal and state contracts for operators, the second, on the contrary, is about prohibiting participation in tenders for persons whose share exceeds 35% in cities. Some market participants support the second document, believing that it will allow regional operators to fully participate in bidding for placement. But experts believe that the state is more likely to support large companies in the first project.

Kommersant got acquainted with the bill submitted to the State Duma on February 27 by deputies Valery Hartung and Fedot Tumusov from the A Just Russia – For Truth party, as well as Irina Filatova from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The document amends the laws “On Advertising”, “On Protection of Competition” and other acts in order to eliminate the monopolization of the outdoor advertising market.

Thus, the authors propose to introduce the concept of “preferential position in the distribution of outdoor advertising” and the associated legal consequences. The predominant share is recognized to be more than 35% in the territories of municipalities, urban districts, as well as in federal cities – Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol. According to the document, such a person is deprived of the right to participate in the auction. Roskomnadzor should receive the authority to establish requirements for computer programs used to distribute advertising using an electronic sign, the document specifies. This will prevent the leakage of information of commercial value and the threat of “harm to the interests of society and the state.” Kommersant sent a request to Roskomnadzor.

The explanatory note states that now “networks of advertising structures installed on land plots owned by the city of Moscow and used to provide advertising distribution services are actually owned by significantly fewer than ten operators.”

Meanwhile, on February 22, a group of deputies from different factions (Maxim Topilin from United Russia, Nikolay Arefiev from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Delyagin from A Just Russia, Stanislav Naumov from the Liberal Democratic Party, etc.) introduced a bill, on the contrary, allowing outdoor advertising operators to renew contracts Vedomosti wrote on structures on land plots or buildings owned by state or municipal property. Now the rights to place on such structures are up for auction. The document proposes to give operators the right to extend contracts in exchange for annual indexation of payments and the obligation to allocate 10% of the annual volume of placements for social advertising.

The adoption of the bill introduced by Valery Hartung and Fedot Tumusov will avoid increased competition and serious market fluctuations due to the expiration of a large number of state-owned advertising structures, believes Konstantin Mayor, CEO of the Maer holding.

For small and regional participants, this is a matter of survival; “they are unlikely to be able to compete in bidding with large players who are buying up advertising infrastructure everywhere,” he believes.

Among the major market participants who will suffer from the adoption of the bill is Russ (more than 50% of the outdoor advertising market), says Andrey Baiduzhiy, director of the outdoor advertising booking service All-billboards. The company’s share in the regions, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, significantly exceeds the level in the bill, he clarified. According to the expert, RIM and Dream also come under attack, whose shares in Kazan, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, and Volgograd exceed 35%. However, they could win in return in Moscow and St. Petersburg, clarifies Mr. Baiduzhiy. At the same time, he doubts that the bill will seriously stimulate competition in the market; rather, it will “make it fragmented.” Russ, RIM and Dream did not answer Kommersant.

Kommersant’s interlocutors in the advertising industry are confident that the bill on the extension of municipal and state contracts for operators will be adopted, while the second will be rejected because “the priority is for companies that generate profit and provide support to the state.”

Yulia Yurasova