State Duma Regulates Digital Industry: No Tricks with Online Subscriptions

State Duma deputies have introduced a new bill, No. 405607-8, aimed at updating the existing law on consumer rights protection from February 7, 1992, No. 2300-1. The proposed amendments will address the regulation of “digital subscriptions,” which are actively used by a quarter of the country’s population.

The bill has been authored by several deputies including Leonid Slutsky, Peter Tolstoy, and Andrei Svintsov. The authors emphasize the need for changes in the current system, noting that consumers face numerous issues such as difficulties in tracking and canceling subscriptions, automatic extensions without user consent, unauthorized fund deductions without notification, and discrepancies in service provisions. These problems force both customers and businesses to expend their personal resources to resolve disputes.

The explanatory note accompanying the bill states that “the proposed changes will have a positive impact on the development of subscription services, providing greater transparency and predictability.”

The bill’s main proposal is to require companies to provide users with a mandatory advance warning of upcoming subscription fund deductions, no later than a day before the deductions occur. Furthermore, companies will be obliged to furnish information on methods for canceling subscriptions and the payment date.

Additionally, the bill aims to ban automatic fund deductions from marketplaces if the user’s data was deleted before completing the purchase. In cases of unauthorized deductions without prior notice, the seller will be required to refund the full amount.

Control over the implementation of the law is proposed to be assigned to Roskomnadzor.

These measures are intended to ensure the comfortable and safe use of digital subscriptions and to simplify the management of purchases.

/Reports, release notes, official announcements.