Advertising alcohol from bloggers. Promotion on YouTube. Penalties. Avoidance of responsibility. Violation of the law on advertising.
Well-known alcohol brands are beginning to actively use advertising in the videos of Russian YouTube bloggers, and those, in turn, are willing to cooperate, despite direct legislative prohibitions and imminent fines. The fact is that the fee for advertising is often several times higher than the amount of the fine, in addition, punishment can be avoided by not mentioning the brand name in voice.
The number of mentions of alcoholic beverages on Russian YouTube channels is so high that if we calculate the potential benefit of bloggers based on their average prices, we get numbers of the order of hundreds of millions of rubles.
The most famous Russian bloggers mention in their videos the names of expensive whiskey, martini, rum, vodka. And this is despite the fact that in Russia advertising of alcohol on the Internet since 2012 in Russia by the "Law on Advertising" (clause 8 clause 1 article 21).
The Federal Antimonopoly Service began to actively apply penalties for advertising alcohol on the Internet only in 2019-2020, but since then the pace of work has only increased, there are already high-profile cases with prosecution and imposing obligations to remove videos from the channel.
However, sanctions for violation of advertising legislation under Art. 14.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for rather insignificant ones. Individuals face a fine of 2,000 rubles to 2,500 rubles, officials - from 4,000 rubles to 20,000 rubles, legal entities - from 100,000 rubles to 500,000 rubles. For both participants in the transaction, both global alcohol brands and major bloggers, even a maximum of half a million is not an amount that motivates them to refuse cooperation. Usually such "associated" costs are borne by the customer.
Also, the format of the video blog provides opportunities to avoid liability, it is enough just not to pronounce the name of the partner, or, for example, to declare that the video was released for informational purposes only. Although the latter justification is unlikely to suit the supervisory authorities and the court, the lack of sound accompaniment is still working. At least, this method is completely satisfied by YouTube itself, which is generally quite loyal to the advertising of alcoholic beverages.
In any case, fines do not stop advertising alcohol on YouTube, the number of collaborations is constantly growing. In turn, the regulatory authorities are also not sitting idle, the number of complaints about violations of advertising legislation is increasing.
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