Deputies Vitaly Milonov and Vladimir Afonsky (both from United Russia) have submitted to the State Duma a bill on the possibility of including websites advertising alcohol in the list of prohibited ones. Now it is possible to block sites with illegal advertising of alcohol only by a court decision, but, according to the authors of the draft law, in practice this rule is not implemented.
It is proposed to amend the law “On information, information technologies and information protection”. The explanatory note (.pdf) states that the illegal market for selling alcohol on the Internet continues to grow, and advertising of alcoholic products is distributed on the network “practically unhindered and in many respects with impunity”. According to Group-IB estimates, illegal alcohol sales on the Internet in Russia grew by 23% in 2018, 4,000 websites were found selling alcohol.
Now in Russia advertising of alcohol is almost completely prohibited and is allowed only at points of sale. Some exemptions in the law exist for wine produced in Russia exclusively from local grapes: it is possible to advertise it at food exhibitions, with the exception of children, as well as on television and radio from 11 pm to 7 am.
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