Information technologies as objects of concession agreements

Abstract

The article discusses certain peculiarities of Russian concession agreements’ legal regulation concerning information technology facilities and data processing centers. The legal status and regulation of information objects and data processing centers are approached differently due to their conceptual differences. Law enforcers faced several questions after the legislator extended that IT objects to the possibility of being the object of concession agreements and public-private partnership contracts. In particular, it is the choice between similar types of contractual structures mediating the turnover of these objects, issues of correlation of objects of different nature and legal regulation regimes within one contract, issues of national security when working with state information systems. The article investigates the reasons behind the legislator’s decision to include non-specific items like telecommunications in the legal domain of concessions and public-private partnership agreements. It also looks at the first practical application of the legal standards in this field (based on data on the conclusion of agreements). The author concludes that the Law on Concessions’ norms should be reconsidered. This could lead to either a complete removal of legal norms that compete with the laws governing public-private partnerships or a refusal to regulate certain objects that are not specific to concessions.