Experts have warned of the risk of digital protectionism due to the expiration of the WTO moratorium

The era of duty-free Internet is over: at the end of March 2026, the World Trade Organization's moratorium on the imposition of duties on electronic transmissions expired. The decision to extend it was not made due to disagreements between the countries, RBC reported on April 1.

The moratorium has been in effect since 1998 and prohibited the imposition of duties on cross—border digital products and services, from software and cloud services to streaming and online content. During this time, it has become one of the key elements of global digital commerce, which reached $4.8 trillion in 2024.

"The decision was supposed to be made at the ministerial conference in Cameroon, but consensus was not achieved.: At least one WTO member opposed US attempts to make the ban indefinite, Bloomberg reported. The impasse arose due to disagreements between Washington and Brazil over the timing of the extension, as well as due to demands made by Turkey at the last moment, which the American side and other participants considered unacceptable," the publication says.

As Vasily Kutyin, Ingo Bank's Director of analytics, noted, the decision actually "draws a line under the era of the duty-free Internet." Experts warn that this could lead to an increase in the cost of digital services and increased fragmentation of the global network.

According to Artyom Aksyanov, Director of technological expertise at the Synergy University Analytical Center, users had not previously wondered why the cost of digital services remained comparable in different countries.

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"What bothers me in this story is not the fact of the duties themselves, but what happens if each country starts building its own system for collecting them — with its own traffic classification standards, its own inspection points, its own rules? Then a single Global network will begin to turn into an archipelago of national circuits with customs at each router," he fears.

Leonid Delitsyn, an analyst at Finam, believes that the lifting of the moratorium will primarily affect American IT companies, since they are the largest providers of digital services. At the same time, developing countries can receive an additional source of income by imposing duties on foreign services.

In addition, Sergey Kudryashov, a partner at Strategy Partners, noted that such measures could stimulate the development of national platforms, but would lead to an increase in the cost of services for users. According to experts, the introduction of duties will increase business costs and may reduce the competitiveness of companies that depend on digital imports.

The consequences for Russia will be mixed. On the one hand, it becomes possible to protect the domestic market, on the other hand, the risk of rising prices for foreign technologies and reducing the export opportunities of domestic IT companies increases.

Experts also warn of broader risks. The introduction of duties can lead to the emergence of "digital borders" and increased protectionism, as well as provoke trade conflicts in the digital sphere. As a result, the Internet may gradually lose its unified character and turn into a set of national segments with their own rules of regulation.

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Earlier, on February 17, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said that the WTO's activities had been virtually paralyzed in recent years. He said that Western countries have switched to unfair competition tactics. In his opinion, sanctions play a significant role in such actions, as well as non-tariff restrictions: freezing assets of other countries, detaining ships on the high seas, and restricting the movement of specific citizens.

Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), said on February 15 that the WTO had proved ineffective in the current conditions. According to him, the organization has been in critical condition for a long time, and currently it can be considered virtually "clinically dead." He believes that drastic measures are needed to restore the organization.

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