For the second time, Moscow hosted the Digital Law Forum, a platform where lawyers, businesses, and government representatives discuss how law keeps pace with digital reality.

The forum’s key topics included artificial intelligence and its impact on the labour market, IT tax reforms, digital asset regulation, personal data protection, and new rules for marketplaces and advertising.
Some participants argued for comprehensive regulation of the digital economy, while others emphasised the need to give technology room to grow. Yet everyone agreed on one point: digitalisation is no longer a trend but a new legal ecosystem in which lawyers must learn to live and work.

Ekaterina Tretyakova, Counsel at VERBA LEGAL, spoke on the topic “New Categories of Distance Sales: Prospects for Development and Regulation (Medicines, Alcohol)” and noted:

“The pilot project for online sales of prescription medicines has been running since 2023 in Moscow, the Moscow Region, and the Belgorod Region. The register currently includes 33 companies — mainly pharmacy chains with their own websites, without the involvement of major marketplaces.

The main challenge lies in creating a technical link between the pharmacy, the medical institution, and the patient. Often, medicines are ordered for relatives, but by law, a prescription cannot be transferred to another person.

With alcohol, the situation is simpler — no prescriptions are needed, but there are age restrictions. There are ongoing discussions about using the Unified Biometric System to verify age online. However, questions arise as to how to integrate biometric identification into online platforms without violating personal data laws.

Other open issues include whether time limits will apply, whether aggregators will be allowed to participate, or whether the experiment will be restricted to large chains with their own identification systems.”