Doing business without accreditation in the national system from July 27 will be classified as illegal business, the corresponding changes will come into force in Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, RIA Novosti reported.
Criminal liability under this article will now come not only for carrying out entrepreneurial activities without registration or without a license, when such a license is required, but also for carrying out entrepreneurial activities without accreditation in the national accreditation or accreditation system in the field of technical inspection of vehicles in cases where such accreditation is required.
The conditions for the occurrence of liability under this article are the consequences in the form of large damage to citizens, organizations or the state, or the generation of income on a large scale. The perpetrators can be sentenced to various types of punishment, from fines to arrest for up to six months.
Ekaterina Avdeeva, head of the Business Russia expert center for criminal law policy, explained to RIA Novosti that, according to the law, accredited services usually include services in education, testing (testing laboratories), clinical diagnostics (medical laboratories), calibration services, certification, therefore, in general, tightening will no longer affect large companies, but the service and education sectors.
The classification of activities without proper accreditation as illegal and falling under criminal liability for the agency’s interlocutor does not seem to be correct, “since in fact it tightens the responsibility for non-compliance with the procedures of the federal law with criminal repressions.”
“Unfortunately, the same practice is used in the absence of licensing of certain types of activities,” complains Avdeeva.
