Russia Plans To Push New Regulations On Online Sales Supervision: Ban Tobacco Information Release

Russia plans to push new regulations on online sales supervision: ban tobacco information release

The Russian government committee supports a draft to restrict online sales of tobacco and nicotine containing products, which is scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2025. Social networks will be required to prohibit the publication of tobacco related information.

According to Versia's report on November 11th, the Russian government committee has given conditional support to a draft law on blocking retail information, which aims to restrict online sales of tobacco and nicotine containing products. This bill needs to be further revised before the second reading by the State Duma.

The bill, numbered 650932-8, was submitted to Parliament by a group of legislators in June of this year. The plan is to take effect from March 1st next year, but formal implementation requires at least 90 days after official announcement.

According to this bill, sections 10.6 and 15.1 of the Information Act will be amended to restrict remote sales of tobacco and nicotine containing products. If this law is passed, social networks will be forced to block the release of sales information for related products.

At the same time, the information subject to this ban will be included in the unified list of prohibited information in the Russian Federation, managed by the Russian Federal Office for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Sputnik). The bill's authors point out that websites, social media, and instant messaging services have become one of the main ways to sell low-priced counterfeit or smuggled tobacco products. They particularly emphasized that the regulations prohibiting remote retail of tobacco products have been clearly stated in Article 19, Part 3 of Federal Law No. 15 on the Protection of Citizens' Health and Environment.

The government's review draft suggests that the bill may help improve the enforcement of sales bans on tobacco products and nicotine containing products. Therefore, if this bill is successfully passed by the State Duma, it is expected to bring significant changes to the circulation rules of tobacco products in Russia, which may also have an impact on the market and consumer behavior.