The State Duma adopted a law abolishing penalties for importing goods into Russia without the permission of copyright holders

The State Duma, in the second and third readings, approved a law that allows Russian companies to import goods without the permission of their copyright holder. This is stated on the website of the lower house of parliament.

The document states that “the use of the results of intellectual activity expressed in goods and the means of individualization with which such goods are marked is not a violation,” that is, suppliers are exempt from liability for violating the law on intellectual property.

The adopted law legalizes the so-called “parallel import”, but its effect applies only to certain categories of goods, which were approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in May, for example, the list included Apple watches , Samsung TVs , as well as PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo consoles.

The explanatory note to the bill stated that its goal was “to reduce the rise in prices for imported goods in connection with the introduction of economic sanctions.”

Kommersant wrote that Ozon , Yandex and other marketplaces, even before the adoption of the law, themselves began to establish “parallel imports” in order to sell the products of companies whose owners left or suspended work in Russia due to the war in Ukraine.