Russia: Adopted Roskomnadzor list of foreign hosting providers subject to local operation requirement under Federal Law No. 236-FZ

On 22 June 2023, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) added 12 foreign hosting providers to the list of companies required to comply with the local operation requirement outlined in the Federal Law No. 236-FZ on the Activities of Foreign Persons on the Internet in the territory of the Russian Federation. The hosting providers included in the list are Hetzner Online GmbH, Network Solutions, LLC, WPEngine, Inc., HostGator.com, LLC, Ionos Inc., DreamHost, LLC, FastComet, Inc., Amazon Web Services, Inc., GoDaddy.com LLC, Bluehost Inc., Kamatera Inc., and DigitalOcean, LLC. Under Federal Law No. 236-FZ, foreign hosting providers that have users in Russia must open a branch or a representative office within the country and register by creating an account on the Roskomnadzor website. In case of non-compliance, the entities face an administrative fine amounting to 10% of their revenue in the last financial year. In addition, for repeated violations, the entities will have to pay a fine ranging from 10% to 20% of their global turnover.