On September 1, 2022, the Federal Law "On Advertising" was amended to mandate the transfer of data on advertising hosted on Runet (Russian internet) to the Unified Register of Online Advertising (UROA). The information is recorded and stored by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).
For this article, we used materials from open online sources, namely by the WE TALK PRO and Ad Law communities. The latter has a series of informative webinars on the topic.
If you receive a task that requires ad labeling (you'll see it when accepting the task), we recommend discussing with the client in advance who does what to meet the advertising law requirements.
Important! On September 1, 2023, penalties for non-compliance with the law came into force. The fines apply to each unregistered creative, and the fine amounts for several violations are added up.
Potential fine | Individual | Individual entrepreneur | Legal entity |
Minimum | ₽42,000 | ₽134,000 | ₽400,000 |
Maximum | ₽132,500 | ₽320,000 | ₽1,500,000 |
Ad labeling algorithm
Main steps:
Before an ad campaign launches, the necessary information about the end advertiser (client), all participants of the advertising chain, and ad creatives needs to be sent to an advertising data operator (ADO); plus, you need to get a token for each creative (Roskomnadzor's recommendations on creatives).
Add a token (unique identifier) to each creative and mark it "Ad". Indicate the advertiser and a website with information about them.
No later than the 30th day of the month following the month of advertising, all the participants (advertisers, agencies, freelancers) must transfer data about themselves and ad campaigns to the UROA via the ADO.
Creatives need to be registered and reported to the UROA via the ORD
If you are the one in charge of registering creatives, select any ODA you like (among those on the Roskomnadzor list) and follow their instructions. At the end of this article, we have provided guides for several ADOs that are authorized to report to the UROA. The ADO list may be amended, so we will do our best to keep the instructions up to date.
Important! Any materials you send to the UROA are irrevocable. You can't have a mistakenly entered contract or creative deleted. However, in some cases, you may be able to edit them.
When reporting, use data from the task:
Reporting is submitted based on a revenue contract (i.e., your offer agreement, which you can see inside the task or in your account in the Documents section). If there are several ad campaigns and they are part of one task, you need to provide a breakdown (itemization) for each. Additionally, you will need information from the Work Completion Certificate (internally also called "Act").
For the original contract with the end advertiser, see the task's Contract with end advertiser section. Please note that the end advertiser is not necessarily your client in Mellow.
If you are the one doing ad labeling and registering an ad creative via the ADO (and receiving a unique identifier / token as a result), you will also need to report ad statistics: impressions and placement sites for each creative. If the ad is ongoing, you need to report these statistics on a monthly basis throughout the entire advertising period, not just for the first month. If the client is the one receiving the ID/token, then they will be responsible for reporting the ad statistics.
Important! You need to submit the reports no later than the 30th day of the month following the month in which the ad was served.
Requirements for contractors to work on tasks with ad labeling in Mellow
To work on such tasks, the contractors needs to:
Have a verified account, with the identity and residency verified. You can get verified in advance on the "Personal details" page.
Enter your Taxpayer Identification Number (INN) in the account under "Profile".
Sign an addendum to the Mellow Offer Agreement. When you receive your first task with ad labeling, you will need to read the addendum and check the corresponding box.
We have all these requirements in place because all participants of the ad campaign chain must submit reports, including us as a service.
If you have any questions about what data from our service you need for reporting, get in touch via the support chat or email us at [email protected].
If you have any questions related to your ADO account, please contact the ADO support.