MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Spotify AB, which owns music streaming service Spotify, has been removed from the list of companies that must comply with the so-called onshoring law, a spokesperson with the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor told TASS on Wednesday.

"Based on the application and in connection with the fact that there are less than 500,000 daily visits in Russia, Roskomnadzor excluded Spotify AB from the list of foreign entities subject to "onshoring," the spokesperson said.

The watchdog’s press service recalled that Roskomnadzor included Spotify AB in the list of foreign entities as the owner of the Spotify information resource in November 2021 as part of the "onshoring" law. In the meantime, the Spotify platform suspended its activities in Russia from April 11, 2022, and on April 20, 2023 sent an application to the media watchdog to exclude it from the list of foreign entities due to non-compliance with the web traffic criterion.

"The daily visits to a foreign entity's information resource by Russian users should be more than 500,000 users. If the web traffic does not meet this indicator for three months, then on the basis of an application, information about the company and its information resources may be excluded from the list," the spokesperson explained.

On July 1, 2021, the law "On the activities of foreign entities in the Internet information and telecommunications network on the territory of the Russian Federation" was adopted.

Besides the requirement to establish a branch or representative office of a Russian legal entity from January 1, 2022, foreign entities have other obligations under the law. They need to post a feedback form for users from Russia on their website, register a personal account on the Roskomnadzor website for interaction with authorities, and install a recommended web counter on the information resource (the list of recommended web counters is determined by Roskomnadzor). Also, foreign entities must restrict access to information that violates Russian law.