FBK Legal lawyers proved that spam and e-commerce are two distinctly separate things

The proceedings at the Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service lasted for over six months with Antitrust practice lawyers of FBK Legal eventually getting the upper hand. They successfully protected the interests of a firm’s client, a manufacturer of software for electronic direct marketing who was accused of sending spam e-mails.

As explained by Sergey Ermolenko, Head of Antitrust practice at FBK Legal, in charge of the project, the accusations in illegal e-mail marketing against a FBK Legal client were not only insufficiently grounded (which eventually was decisive for the Federal Antimonopoly Service to deliver its judgement), but also to the wrong quarter, so to speak: software is provided to a client for use, and it is up to the client why and how it applies the software.

“We brought home to the Commission that here it is not our client who is to be sued, but the software users. Accusing a software manufacturer in distributing spam in this case is much the same as accusing, say, Microsoft or an Internet provider. No dissemination was possible without them,” Sergey Ermolenko said.

The lawyer welcomed the Commission’s decision to close the proceedings, saying that we’ve made another step on the road to a civilised e-commerce market in Russia. The decision has it that it is an advertiser who is responsible for unwanted e-mails, which must not affect other parties. E-mail advertising which meets the established rules will continue, while the developer of the software for information dissemination purposes will continue to further develop and improve and launch new software.

He went on to add, “This is not the only judgement that has been delivered to protect e-commerce players and yet another achievement of the FBK Legal team in this sector. Protection of high-tech market players is one of our regular area of activities. It is a satisfaction to know that we have contributed to further development of this market sector”.

Recommend