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MOSCOW, April 9The State Duma adopted in the second and third readings a law allowing outdoor advertising operators this year to renew contracts for their placement on state and municipal lands and buildings without bidding, upon assuming a number of obligations.
Legislation until March 1, 2023 allowed such operators to extend for up to a year contracts for the installation of advertising structures on land plots and real estate owned by state or municipal property. Currently, the rights to place outdoor advertising on such lands and buildings are granted based on auction results. In this case, the contract must be concluded for a period of five to 10 years. 
Until the end of this year, the law gives outdoor advertising operators the right to extend existing contracts for such advertising structures without bidding for up to 10 years, provided there is no debt on them. In this case, the additional agreement to the contract must contain a requirement for annual indexation of the amount of payments under it in accordance with the inflation rate established in the law on the federal budget.
The total validity period of the contract for the installation and operation of an advertising structure, taking into account the additional agreement, must expire no later than December 31, 2034 inclusive. In addition, the operator will have to undertake to place social advertising free of charge in the amount of 10% of the annual volume of distributed advertising. Currently the quota for social advertising is 5%.
The law must come into force 10 days after official publication. Its implementation, according to the explanatory note, will ensure support for the existing volume of social advertising, as well as uninterrupted replenishment of budgets at all levels.
Preserving revenues from contracts with reputable companies is especially important given the fact that many unscrupulous outdoor advertising operators raise prices during bidding, and subsequently cannot properly fulfill their obligations and leave the market, it is noted there.
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