Despite the fact that the issue of intellectual property rights turnover is included in the perimeter of antimonopoly regulation, until recently the Russian Antitrust Agency took rather an observant position.

The regulator's position was that the issue of patent infringement is a private legal dispute between original and generic manufacturers, which should not affect the turnover of drugs, particularly the execution of contracts based on the results of public procurement. Only in isolated cases the Russian Antitrust Agency has established the fact of patent infringement and issued a corresponding order on the inadmissibility of anti-competitive practices.

Now the reverse trend has clearly emerged.

More in our update.

On October 23, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation (the “FAS”) has published recommendations for preventing greenwashing in marketing communications (the “Recommendations”).

Greenwashing is described as actions involving the distribution of false or incorrect environmental statements that mislead consumers regarding the environmental characteristics of goods in order to obtain unjustified advantages.

The Recommendations provide for the concept of environmental statements, their types and requirements for them, as well as the consequences of non-compliance with the requirements for such statements.

We are delighted to announce that Lidings has updated The Pharma Legal Handbook: Russia - practical directory focused on the key aspects of legislative regulation of pharmaceutical industry in Russia.

On April 11, 2024, in Moscow, the annual Pravo.ru conference "Pharmaceuticals – 2024: Legal Issues" will take place. Lidings lawyers traditionally take an active part in the event’s program.

As a strategic partner of the conference, we have endeavored to make the program as comprehensive and useful as possible. Together with experts from the pharmaceutical industry and legal experts, we will discuss current issues in industry regulation, legislative changes, market access, government procurement, and distribution. We will also touch upon marketing and promotion issues, as well as discuss strategies for protecting intellectual property.

Lidings is pleased to announce Natalya Thotahewage, a recognized expert in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, joining the firm as counsel and the appointment of Elizaveta Fursova, Head of the Lidings' Employment practice, as counsel.

On 7 December 2023 the results of the annual Pravo-300 law firms’ ranking were announced at an awarding ceremony at The Carlton Hotel in Moscow. This year Lidings expertise is highly praised in 15 key practice areas.

This review is prepared based on the EEC reports on the state of competition in cross-border markets and measures taken to curb violations of the general rules of competition in those markets in 2020-2022 (in Russian).

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Federal Law No. 301-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”” (the “Law”) was signed by the President of the Russian Federation on 10 July 2023 and will enter into force on 1 September 2023. As follows from the explanation note, the Law provides a set of norms aimed to improve antitrust regulation in the digital economic development. The main amendments of the fifth antitrust package you can find in this legal update.

Legal update on general ad requirements in CIS countries, Georgia and Mongolia.

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From 1 September 2022 a new regulation in the field of advertising has been enacted. Federal Law No. 38-FZ “On Advertising” was supplemented by provisions, according to which Internet advertising should be marked and is subject to registration in the Unified Register of Internet Advertising, the operator of which is Roskomnadzor.