Maxim Ali has provided his comments to Delovoy Peterburg on the legal risks to high-tech businesses

Maxim Ali - Partner

The business newspaper Delovoy Peterburg has published an article titled ‘The law and business live apart: the rating of industries in which it is not possible to make an income when complying with legislation’.  The article included the rating of 10 industries prepared from a survey of leading lawyers who work with businesses.

Maxim Ali, Senior Associate at Maxima Legal, provided his comments for the rating regarding businesses in the technology sector who unavoidably encounter unclear regulations since legislation can be outdated and no longer relevant.

“Traditionally, the application of obsolete legislation in the sphere of new technologies complicates the market. A notable example of this is the ruling of the Ninth Commercial Appeal Court in a dispute between VKontakte and Double Data which was made a few days ago. In this case, the court overturned the decision of the Moscow Commercial Court and found the gathering of data of VKontakte users to be illegal. It appears that the court recognised the right of VKontakte to its database of users and the court could therefore issue a ban on its use. Such cases can have quite a serious impact on the development of markets for certain technologies in Russia,” commented Maxim Ali.

To view the full version of the article, please click here.