The explanatory footnote specified that interest

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the following statements: "Order a free Alfa-Bank credit card with a whole year without interest and receive super cashback in rubles every month, and also withdraw cash for free from any ATM."

-free purchases were only possible within 30 days from the date of the agreement, no more than 50 thousand rubles could be withdrawn in cash without interest during the grace period of 60 days, and the maximum cashback amount was 5,000 rubles per month. This information was posted in small print for a short time, which did not allow consumers to read it.

According to the FAS peru whatsapp resource of Russia, such actions may mislead consumers and contain signs of violating Federal Law No. 38-FZ "On Advertising". The agency has opened a case against Alfa-Bank JSC. If the organization is found guilty, it faces a fine.

Alfa-Bank has repeatedly violated the following requirements of the law on advertising financial services: it used incorrect comparisons (using the word "best" without specifying objective criteria), and also provided incomplete information on the essential terms of financial products. The Service recognized the advertising of a deposit, a children's card, debit and credit cards, mortgages, as well as acquiring services and the provision of cashback as improper," a representative of the press service of the FAS of Russia told a ComNews correspondent.

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The Federal Antimonopoly Service has opened a case against Alfa-Bank JSC for signs of violating the law on advertising. The total amount of fines imposed on Alfa-Bank since the beginning of 2023 has amounted to 20 million 174 thousand rubles. Advertising violations are one of the most common violations that the FAS has been fighting against in recent years.

Legal adviser of the intellectual property practice of the law firm "EBR", expert of the educational platform Moscow Digital School Sofya Sharypova explained what punishment a bank may face for such a violation: "For violation of the advertising legislation, administrative liability is provided in the form of a fine in accordance with Article 14.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. For legal entities, the fine varies from 100 thousand rubles to 500 thousand rubles. In addition, for improper advertising, a company may receive an order to remove it. In case of failure to comply with the FAS order, the bank faces a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles."

Pavel Lisavin, a lawyer at the Pen & Paper Bar Association, reported an increase in fines for violating the Law on Advertising: “In this case, Alfa-Bank may be held liable under Part 6 of Article 14.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for violating advertising legislation committed by a credit institution in connection with advertising the provision of a loan (credit). In accordance with the sanction of this article, Alfa-Bank may be fined from 600 thousand to 1.6 million rubles. It is noteworthy that the amount of the fine for this offense was significantly less until recently. Before the introduction of changes from April 6, 2024, the fine was from 300 thousand to 800 thousand rubles. The increase in the amount of the sanction was twofold, which generally shows the state's focus on tightening regulation in the field of advertising of banking services. However, such aggressive advertising is economically beneficial for Alfa-Bank itself, despite the fines. For 2023, the bank received "4.6 million new clients."

The press service of the FAS Russia noted that Alfa-Bank is the leader in the number of such violations: "Since the beginning of 2023, the FAS Russia and its territorial bodies have initiated 70 cases of administrative offenses against Alfa-Bank. 66 of them were initiated after establishing the fact of violation of the Law "On Advertising", four cases - for failure to comply with the order of the service and failure to provide information upon the requests of the department. Currently, Alfa-Bank is the leader in the number of violations of the Law "On Advertising" among financial organizations. For the same period (since 2023), Otkritie Bank was second in the number of violations (20 cases), and Post Bank was third (12 cases)."

Since the beginning of 2024, the FAS Russia has initiated 16 cases against Alfa-B