In 2025, a number of important amendments to advertising legislation will come into force.
- The Law “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Advertising” and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” No. 479-FZ
The amendment will affect the distribution of social advertising and advertising of consumer loans and loans. In addition, the law “On Advertising” will introduce a new requirement to pay a fee when advertising on the Internet.
Social advertising
On March 1, 2025, changes began to take effect, according to which not only advertising distributors are required to place social ads, but also owners of ad placement services (for example, Avito) and aggregators of information about goods and services (Ozon, Uber, Wildberries). Social advertising must be placed within the limits of:
- 5% of the annual advertising volume or
- 5%, corresponding to the total number of Internet users located in Russia who accessed the relevant ad placement service per day during the year.
However, this requirement will be mandatory only for those sites with an audience of more than 200,000 users per day.
To distribute social advertising, the Russian Government, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Communications, will appoint a non-profit organization that will serve as the operator of social advertising. Currently, the operator is the Institute for the Development of the Internet (IDI).
Upon request, it is necessary to send information about the number of users of an ad placement service or an aggregator of information about goods (services); about the volume, methods, forms and means of advertising distribution. To count the number of users, one must use the services recommended by the Roskomnadzor.
IDI will conclude contracts with the owners of ad distribution services and marketplaces for the distribution of social advertising.
That is, the responsibilities of ad distribution services and marketplaces now include:
- Installing a program to count users;
- Providing information on the number of users;
- Free distribution of advertising provided by IDI.
Responsibility for non-fulfillment of obligations to place social advertising comes under Part 12 of Article 14.3 of the Administrative Code and entails liability for legal entities in the form of a fine in the amount of 200 to 500 thousand rubles.
Labeling of social advertising
In addition, from March 1, 2025, the rules on advertising labeling will apply to social advertising. Social advertising is allowed only if there is an identifier assigned by the advertising data operator, and information about social advertising must be transmitted to Roskomnadzor.
Advertising of loans and borrowings
Starting from March 1, 2025, any advertisement for consumer loans and borrowings must be accompanied by a disclaimer: “Assess your financial capabilities and risks.”
If the advertisement has at least one condition that affects the full cost of the loan, then
- it must be accompanied by a disclaimer “Study all the terms of the loan” with an indication of the section of the lender’s official website,
- or, if it is impossible to place a link to the lender’s resource, the advertising text itself must specify all the conditions for obtaining a loan.
The duration of the disclaimer for radio advertising must be at least 3 seconds. When advertising on television or using other means of advertising, the duration of the disclaimer must be at least 3 seconds, and they must occupy at least 5% of the frame area.
Advertising fee
From April 1, 2025, advertising distributors and operators of advertising systems will be required to deduct to the federal budget 3% of the quarterly amount of income received from the sale of services for the distribution of advertising on the Internet. The funds will be used for state support of domestic software copyright holders.
The criteria for the advertising for which the fee is charged will be determined by the Government of the Russian Federation. The amount of the fee will be calculated by Roskomnadzor based on the information provided to it about online advertising.
Websites owned by television and radio broadcasting companies, news agencies, as well as publications that simultaneously publish large print editions will be exempt from paying the fee.
At the moment there are no rules on liability for non-payment of the mandatory fee.
- The Law on Amendments to Article 12 of the Federal Law on Countering Extremist Activities and the Federal Law on Advertising
According to this law, from September 1, 2025, the it is prohibited to distribute advertising on the nformation resources of organizations
- which activities are considered undesirable on the territory of Russia;
- in respect of which the court has taken an effective decision to eliminate or ban activities on the grounds provided for by Law No. 114-FZ “On Countering Extremist Activities” or Law No. 35-FZ “On Countering Terrorism”;
- on other information resources, access to which is restricted in accordance with Russian legislation on information.
Thus, from September 1, 2025, advertising on Meta platforms[1] is prohibited.
There are no special rules on liability for advertising on such platforms yet. Liability may occur in accordance with Part 1 of Article 14.3 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation – violation of the legislation on advertising. The fine under this rule can be up to 500,000 rubles for legal entities.
[1] Meta has been recognized as an extremist organization and is banned in the Russian Federation.