Expert Says Illegal Cell Phone Imports to Russia Plummet in 2006

MOSCOW, Dec 7 (Prime-Tass) -- The share of illegally imported mobile handsets in Russia fell to 10%-20% of total mobile handset imports in 2006 from 90% in 2005, Alexander Onishchuk, president of RATEK, said at a conference Thursday.

RATEK stands for the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Consumer Electronic and Computer Equipment.

Russian law enforcement bodies started a campaign against illegal mobile handset imports in mid-2005. Following the start of the campaign, most Russian mobile handset retailers started importing mobile handsets directly instead of using intermediaries. In addition, the tariff service received official price lists for mobile handsets from most handset producers, which considerably reduced the number of handsets imported below market prices, market experts said earlier.

The Federal Customs Service said in November that imports of mobile handsets in Russia rose to 19.034 million units in January-September from about 5.670 million in the same period of 2005. In monetary terms, mobile handset imports jumped to U.S. $2.84 billion in January-September from about $220 million in January-September 2005.

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Posted to the site on 7th December 2006