As of 1 January 2017 consumers demanding a non-scheduled inspection (by market surveillance authorities) of companies that have allegedly infringed their consumer rights, are first required to demonstrate that they have tried to apply directly to these companies in order to try and rectify the situation.
These changes have been introduced by the Federal Law N 277-FZ of 03.07.2016 " On amendments to the federal law "On protection of rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs when maintaining state (supervision) and municipal control" and the Federal Law "On strategic planning in the Russian Federation".
The amendments mean that a consumer should first make a claim directly to the business entity before requesting the market surveillance authority (Rospotrebnadzor) to perform a non-scheduled inspection of this business entity.
In addition, anonymous letters and complaints will not be considered by the authority as grounds for non-scheduled inspections.
Moreover, in cases where the information contained in a complaint may, by itself be treated as grounds for a non-scheduled inspection, but there are reasonable doubts about the identity of the complainant, the authority is obliged to take reasonable measures to identify the complainant.