Technology companies could face regulatory restrictions in Russia this year

The Russian government has passed a new protectionism law that will come into effect from July 1, 2020. According to the bill, all high-tech devices, including computers, smartphones and tablets, must be pre-installed with Russian software to be sold in the country.

The law requires Russia’s Yandex browser to be the default web browser, something companies like Apple are the least keen on. The law also requires companies to store Russian users’ data on local servers . In particular, professional networking platform LinkedIn was banned from Russia after publicly denying storing personal user data in the country.

Russia will impose fines of 6 million rubles ($95,875) for first violations and 18 million rubles ($287,924) if companies continue to violate personal data laws. It will be. As you can imagine, big tech companies are not happy with this decision by the Russian government. The Association of Consumer Electronics and Computer Equipment Traders and Manufacturers (RATEK) also does not support the bill.

“This initiative is potentially harmful to the market. It will impact consumers, electronics manufacturers, software developers, etc. alike. “Manufacturers will find themselves in a bind because they don’t have local apps, and even those that may be able to pre-install local apps will have to pay hefty licensing fees,” said a RATEK spokesperson. told The Hollywood Reporter .

Now, it’s not just hardware-related companies that will be affected by this law. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, the future of streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+ is also in jeopardy. Just before the launch of Apple TV+, the Russian government announced that it would prepare a bill to block foreign streaming services in order to favor local players in that segment if their user base exceeds 50 percent of all Russian video streaming users. did.

It remains to be seen how things will play out when the bill takes effect later this year. Until then, let us know what you think in the comments section below.