Key takeaways

• The regulation of major and interested party transactions in Russia will change significantly starting on January 1, 2017. The changes substantially reduce the administrative burden on companies, thereby ensuring that business can be done more easily and effectively.
• The amendments (a) extend the list of transactions exempted from major and interested party transactions regulation, (b) abolish the requirement for the mandatory prior approval of interested party transactions, (c) tighten the disclosure requirements for interested parties, (d) replace the criterion of “affiliation” with the criterion of “control”, (e) introduce the definition of ordinary course of business, and (f) increase the shareholders’ threshold for challenging transactions (at least 1% of the company’s shares) and provide for other changes.