The federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Novosibirsk regional department of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, upholding the service's order for buses, minibuses, trolleybuses and trams to cease audio advertising through speakers and to silence its digital, onboard TV advertising.
In its decision, the court cited Article 20 of the federal law on advertising, which forbids "using means of transportation for the dissemination of audio advertising and sounds accompanying other advertising media."
The anti-monopoly service of Novosibirsk, whose duties include regulation and oversight of advertising, began its fight against audio advertising on pubic transportation several years ago, after collecting numerous passenger complaints about the installation of noisy "passenger televisions" on local busses, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.
The service sided with the passengers and ordered transportation companies to pull the plug on the audio. But operators later had the order repealed in regional court, and the sound accompanying the TV advertising was turned back on.
"Our decision to ban audio advertising was appealed, and unfortunately we lost the first, second and third court cases," said Sergei Gavrilov, head of the Novosibirsk service, reported Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
"But we took it even further and appealed to the Supreme Arbitration Court, which looked at our complaint and ruled the actions of the Novosibirsk Federal Anti-Monopoly Service to be absolutely lawful."
In February, the Tyumen region's Federal Arbitration Court fined a local transportation advertising agency, Transmedia, 300,000 rubles ($827) for not discontinuing its unlawful use of sound in its TV advertisements, which violated an order and warnings given by the service, Interfax reported.
The Supreme Arbitration Court's ruling on Tuesday applies to all advertising on aboveground transport in the country, setting a precedent for future regional legal proceedings.
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