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Yandex may restructure news service while limiting share of foreign ownership

The company believes there is no need for regulations on limiting foreign participation in news providers, considering into account existing requirements for news aggregators

MOSCOW, December 18. / TASS /. Russia's biggest internet company Yandex may consider possible options for restructuring its news service if a law is passed on limiting foreign participation in news providers, the company press service told TASS on Tuesday.

"We sent our comments to the bill. From our point of view, there is no need for such regulations, considering into account existing requirements for news aggregators. In any case, as we said earlier, if this law goes into effect, the company will consider possible options for restructuring the news service taking into account the requirements of the law, "press service representative said.

Earlier, Deputy Duma speaker from the Liberal Democratic Party Igor Lebedev said at the plenary session of the lower house of parliament, where the relevant document was discussed in the first reading, that Yandex and the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications gave a negative evaluation of the bill.

News Aggregators Bill

The State Duma on Tuesday adopted in the first reading a resonant bill that limits the share of foreign ownership of a news aggregator in the Russian Federation to 20%. This initiative proposes extending the legal requirements already in place for mainstream media outlets to this mechanism for distributing content online.

According to the explanatory note to the bill, an aggregator cannot be owned by foreign countries, international organizations and organizations controlled by them; foreign legal entities, partially foreign-owned Russian legal entities, foreign citizens, stateless persons and Russian nationals holding foreign citizenship.

The draft law envisages a six-month period for bringing any company’s founding documents into line with the regulations. Should there be any failure to comply with these requirements, a court ruling could block the news aggregators.