According to the Group-IB research, last year the amount of publicly released databases of Russian companies six times outnumbered those unlawfully made public in 2021. At the same time, special provisions, regulating liability for personal data leaks, are not foreseen neither in the Code of Administrative Offenses of Russia nor in the Criminal Code.

Therefore, on 4 December 2023, the draft laws No. 502104-8 “On Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation” (“draft law No. 502104-8") and No. 502113-8 “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation” (“draft law No. 502113-8”), providing toughening liability for personal data leakage, were submitted to the State Duma.

According to the explanatory notes to these draft laws, currently existing liability is disproportional and incomparable to the potential social harm which can personal data leakage result in.

Recently the judicial practice on challenging sanctions imposed on Russian persons has begun to shape. We have already written about the first successful case with the participation of Russian person Dmitry Ovsyannikov, the former governor of Sevastopol, who managed to have himself excluded from the sanctions list.

Since that case was decided in February 2023, the sanctions removal practice has enriched by several other notable cases.

On 15 November 2023 the Russian Supreme Court has published a review of court practice in cases involving the assessment of actions of trademark holders.

The review analyzes cases and circumstances in which the parties conduct is considered to be in bad faith or, on the other hand, in good faith.

Over the past two years, the number of arbitration disputes on the recovery of unjust enrichment from foreign IT-companies has increased significantly. For the period from 2022 to 2023, according to the Arbitration Case File, dozens of claims were filed by Russian legal entities against the largest foreign software manufacturers: IBM Eastern Europe/Asia LLC, Dell LLC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise LLC, and HP Inc LLC.

Over the past two years, the number of arbitration disputes on the recovery of unjust enrichment from foreign IT-companies has increased significantly. For the period from 2022 to 2023, according to the Arbitration Case File, dozens of claims were filed by Russian legal entities against the largest foreign software manufacturers: IBM Eastern Europe/Asia LLC, Dell LLC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise LLC, and HP Inc LLC.

On 4 November 2023 the decree of the Ministry of Industry and Trade No. 2701 dated 21 July 2023, which approved a new list of goods for parallel import and recognized the decree of the Ministry of Industry and Trade No. 1532 dated 19 April 2022 and all the amending decrees as null and void, comes into force.

On October 23, 2023, the European Commission issued updated Consolidated FAQs on the implementation of Council Regulation No 833/2014 and Council Regulation No 269/2014 regarding the definition of criteria for control of companies.

On 20 October 2023, the draft law “On Amending Article 13 of the Federal Law 'On Peculiarities of Regulation of Corporate Relations in Business Companies that are Economically Significant Organizations'” was submitted to the State Duma. The Draft Law amends Federal Law No. 470 and cancels some restrictions for transactions aimed at obtaining direct control over ESO by Russian citizens and residents indirectly owning stocks/shares of ESO owned by a foreign holding company.

On 14 August 2023 the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal invalidated a real estate purchase and sale deal completed without the permission of the Government Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the “Government Commission”). On 16 October 2023 the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, confirming the illegality of such transactions bypassing the procedure provided for by current legislation.