World meat industry news

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law legalizing parallel imports for 2022 and exempting from criminal and administrative responsibility for it. The document was published on the official portal of legal information and entered into force.

Previously, the legislation allowed the government to approve a list of goods for which civil law protection measures for exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity (RID) are not applied.

In connection with external sanctions, this mechanism is used to saturate the domestic market through parallel imports with scarce and original goods.

These goods are not subject to the provisions of the Civil Code on the protection of exclusive rights to RIA and means of individualization, which relieves importers of civil liability when importing products.

In order to protect exclusive rights, not only civil law, but also criminal and administrative liability measures may be applied.

To solve this problem, the law now establishes that the use of the results of intellectual activity, expressed in goods from the list approved by the Cabinet, is not a violation.

This will protect persons importing goods as part of parallel imports from criminal and administrative liability, said Ilya Torosov, First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economic Development.