Electronics manufacturers are asking the Russian authorities to postpone the introduction of the law on presets

It is still unclear which programs and how they should be installed on the devices.

From January 1, 2021, a law should come into force that obliges to pre-install Russian software on smartphones, PCs and smart TVs distributed in Russia.

At the same time, the government of the country has not published a by-law defining the list of applications required for installation, as well as the installation procedure.

This is what the Association of Computer and Information Technology Enterprises (APKIT) appeals to, asking Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko to postpone the entry into force of the law indefinitely.

The problem is not only with the lack of a list of applications. There is also no information about which specific models will need to be installed and what will have to be done with those devices that were previously imported into the country and did not have time to receive Russian software (the pre-installation, as far as can be understood from the available materials, eventually fell on the shoulders of device manufacturers).

According to Kommersant, there is no certainty about who and how will control the law.

Due to the current situation, device manufacturers do not have the opportunity to have time to implement the requirement of the Russian Federation, representatives of APKIT say. According to the Association, it takes them at least three months to implement the new rules, as well as to test the software.

Another association agrees with her — RATEK (the Russian Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Household and Computer Equipment), which includes Apple, Samsung, Google and LG, among others. Its representative Anton Guskov, in an interview with Kommersant, noted that the industry needs from six months to one and a half years to fulfill all requirements.

The authorities say they hear “concern about the timing” of market participants and are working on options that could take into account the interests of all parties.

If the government goes to the APKIT meeting, which includes Yandex, Apple and Huawei, this will be the second postponement. Initially, the document was supposed to enter into force on July 1. However, due to the coronavirus, its introduction was postponed to next January.

By the way, all the issues raised by APKIT today were relevant a year ago, when the law was just proposed for consideration by the State Duma.

See also:

• The State Duma has finally adopted a law on pre-installations of Russian software on smartphonesProblems and consequences of the law banning the sale of smartphones without Russian software: lawyer’s comment
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