The lawyer spoke about the right to compensation for moral damage for spam calls

The right to compensation for moral damage for spam calls will give Russians the opportunity to go to court even in the single case of an intrusive call. In addition, the initiative will increase the likelihood of winning such cases in court. Mirza Chiragov, head of digital Law at LigalPics, told Izvestia about this on April 11.

According to him, the Supreme Court actually recognized the right of citizens to demand compensation for disturbing their peace and intrusive advertising through phone calls. The expert noted that this opens up many opportunities for citizens.

"People will be able to apply to the court for compensation for moral damage even in a single case of an intrusive call, if it caused discomfort. There is a possibility of collective lawsuits — when groups of citizens unite to protect their rights," the specialist said.

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He noted that the most important thing is that the right to compensation can stimulate citizens to actively protect their right to personal space. At the same time, according to Chiragov, the risks of flooding the courts with such lawsuits are not expected.

"No matter how paradoxical it may sound, unfortunately, such a risk is not great. Citizens are not always ready to defend their rights in other cases when there is an open violation. In addition, lawsuits will require evidence (call recordings, screenshots), which will limit the flow of "empty" statements," the specialist said.

He also explained that due to the innovations, the number of consent requests for advertising may increase in order to avoid fines. In his opinion, many businesses may abandon aggressive phone sales in favor of less risky channels: email, instant messengers, targeted advertising.

"As a lawyer, I hope that the demand for legal services for auditing advertising strategies will increase in order to minimize legal risks," Chiragov shared.

However, Alexander Khaminsky, a lawyer and head of the Law Enforcement Center in Moscow and the Moscow Region, explained that there is essentially only one way for a person to prove the receipt of unwanted calls: to have time to write down the text of the message in order to attach it to the statement of offense in the future.

According to the lawyer, despite the fact that the law obliges mobile operators to record and store recordings of all conversations for several months, there is no procedure for claiming such recordings.

"The practice of an authorized body holding unscrupulous advertisers accountable is still very small," the expert shared.

Earlier, on March 4, Izvestia got acquainted with the data of the Megafon anti-phishing platform. It turned out that Internet scammers increase their activity during the holidays, and this year was no exception. The number of fraudulent resources doubled in January-February. As the operator explained, investment and financial simulation resources account for approximately 60% of the total share. They usually disguise themselves as the branding of large corporations, inform them about the possibility of receiving a payment on the occasion of a holiday or investing money profitably.