A bill was submitted to the State Duma that would provide for measures to regulate the functioning of markets, RBC writes with reference to the document. The rules drawn up by the deputies, in particular, prohibit charging the buyer for the return of the goods. The bill will go into effect on March 1 next year.
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The marketplaces are called “asset information aggregators” in the bill. The document proposes to introduce general regulation for all these sites and additional regulation for those that occupy more than 20% of the market. In early January, the FAS recognized that Ozon and Wildberries were dominant in the market. The service found that together the companies occupy 80% of the market.
As indicated in the explanatory note to the document, the new measures should eliminate the deficiencies of the current legislation.
As the text points out, dominant markets can abuse their position. For example, sites have the ability to unilaterally change the terms of cooperation with partners and block personal accounts for violations of offer agreements.
Who will be affected by the new rules?
The bill introduces the concept of sites occupying a “significant market position.” These include marketplaces through which more than 20% of all transactions between sellers and buyers took place during the previous year.
What the “important” markets want to ban:
- Change the terms of the contract, worsen in one way or another the situation of sellers or holders of order collection points (POP) without informing them 30 days in advance. The exception will be cases in which the security of clients, counterparties or the company itself is involved;
- Create discriminatory conditions under the law “On Protection of Competition”, as well as create obstacles to market access;
- make sales for free (except your own products);
- impose services that are not related to electronic commerce, impose conditions for the promotion of goods by reducing the cost without the consent of the counterparty;
- prohibit counterparties from operating on other platforms and create advantages for the sale of their own brands.
Furthermore, the bill proposes that the total cost of all services of such platforms does not exceed 10% of the price of the goods in respect of which these services are provided. The total amount of penalties for non-compliance with the contract by the seller should not exceed 15% of the cost of the services in respect of which a violation was detected.
General requirements for all markets
According to the document, when concluding an agreement, each site undertakes to verify the documents and profile of the counterparties. They must also publish the contract form on their website.
It is proposed to establish the obligation to verify the age of buyers when selling certain goods. In addition, marketplaces may be required to ensure that they do not publish information about products whose circulation is prohibited in the Russian Federation.
Among other things, the document provides for a prohibition on imposing compensation on the buyer for the return of the goods. Marketplaces may also be granted the right to sell products, even under their own brands. The FAS must monitor compliance with work standards.
Last spring, Tatyana Bakalchuk, founder and CEO of Wildberries, asked the authorities to postpone the introduction of state regulation of the markets. She stated that “where government regulation appears, growth stops.”
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
