ATTENTION citizens: new fines have been approved in Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, fines are being established for violating the requirements of normative legal acts in the field of cybersecurity.

This issue was reflected in the draft amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which was brought up for discussion at today's extraordinary session of the Milli Majlis.

According to the draft law, sanctions are envisaged for the following violations related to the failure to take cybersecurity measures for information infrastructure by incident response centers, security operations centers, as well as information infrastructure entities, including owners of internet information resources, internet providers, and hosting providers:

- failure to comply with the instructions of the body (institution) designated by the relevant executive authority in connection with ensuring the cybersecurity of information infrastructure (prevention of cyber threats, cyberattacks, and cyber incidents, as well as elimination of their consequences), conducting digital investigations, and providing information about their results;

- failure to promptly provide the designated body (institution) with data on cyber threats, cyberattacks, and cyber incidents targeting the information infrastructure, as well as information obtained as a result of the said activities;

- failure to respond to requests from the body (institution) within the established timeframes: 24 hours for requests related to assessing the state of cybersecurity of information infrastructure and conducting proactive cybersecurity research, and 5 business days for requests related to conducting digital investigations;

- failure to ensure continuous real-time monitoring of cyber incidents and cyberattacks and failure to take primary technical response measures;

- violation of general and special cybersecurity requirements for information infrastructure performing socially significant functions by information infrastructure entities, including internet providers, hosting providers, and owners of internet information resources;

- failure to create conditions for conducting digital and proactive cybersecurity research, as well as allowing the integrity of data obtained during digital investigations to be compromised, altered, deleted, or falsified.

For the listed violations, officials are subject to fines ranging from 500 to 1,000 manats, and legal entities from 100 to 2,000 manats.

In addition, for operating as a computer incident response center or a security operations center without being included in the relevant registry, officials will be fined from 1,000 to 1,500 manats, and legal entities from 1,500 to 2,500 manats.

In parallel with cybersecurity, the draft law expands the scope of violations of seed production legislation.

According to the draft, fines are envisaged for the production, processing, procurement, storage, transportation, and trade (including import and export) of seeds that do not meet the requirements of normative legal acts in the field of seed production, for conducting seed production activities without registering seed operators in the information system of the relevant body, as well as for providing false information about the plant variety name, its origin, and seed quality on packages (containers, packets, etc.), labels, or accompanying documents, as follows:

- individuals — from 100 to 150 manats;

- officials — from 300 to 500 manats;

- legal entities — from 1,000 to 1,500 manats.

Furthermore, for the deliberate entry of knowingly false or distorted data by seed operators into the subsystem of the information system of the relevant body, similar fine amounts are established: individuals — from 100 to 150 manats, officials — from 300 to 500 manats, legal entities — from 1,000 to 1,500 manats.

Another important innovation of the draft law was the amendment of penalties for failure to repatriate foreign currency from abroad obtained as a result of foreign economic activity and subject to mandatory transfer to accounts of authorized banks of Azerbaijan.

According to the current legislation, this violation is punishable by a fine ranging from 30% to 50% of the value of the foreign currency that is the direct object of the administrative offense