Auto sms advertising legal proposal withdrawn

Russian State Duma Maksim Korobov has revoked his legal proposal to ban auto-SMS advertising, as the government does not support the proposal.

Korobov submitted a draft law in 2010 proposing amending the exiting procedure of mobile pop-up advertisingto force companies to get written agreement from mobile users before sending them auto-sms advertising and promotions. Under his proposal the operator could not initiate an auto-call or auto-sms spamming. A government committee delayed making a decision on the proposal in September 2010.According to the Ministry, the proposed law actually prohibits the automated distribution of advertising, even with the consent of a subscriber to receive it, and would significantly limit advertisers delivering information to consumers interested in it.Valeriya Kuzmenko, a representative of mobile operator MTS, said the new law suggestions are indiscreet and could diminish the market of mobile advertising. “The Russian market for mobile advertising will reach a turnover worth 500 million rubles in 2011 and the adoption of amendments to the Law "On Advertising" could prevent the development of this promising segment of the advertising market” Oksana Pankratova analyst AC&M Consulting noted that promotional sms has a relatively small share of the operator revenues “According to Ministry of Communication statistics the Mobile operators have generated 594 billion roubles of profits and three leading operators are in fierce competition for customer loyalty, which is forcing them to reduce irritation of customers by frequent sms adverts.” Kuzmenko adds that the automated sms advertising is not always annoying and clients can easily sign off from it.“The mobile operators are enabled to choose the right audience for each advertisement and such advertising is often very useful nevertheless, the customer himself gives his consent to be submitted for auto mailing and can withdraw from the submission.”