Six in ten market vendors have encountered ‘consumer extremism’: survey

More than half (51%) of sellers met with unscrupulous consumers more than three times a year, a third (37%) – 2-3 times a year and 12% – only once in 2024.

In the study, consumer extremism was understood as the actions of buyers and consumer associations to obtain additional benefits from the seller through unfair use of consumer protection laws.

What sellers complained about:

• In 58% of cases, consumers try to return a product in good condition after short use.
  In 43% of cases these are products from the clothing and footwear category. Gadgets are returned after use in 35% of cases.
  jewelry and costume jewelry – 16%, food and drinks – 4%, children’s products – 2%.

• 14% started legal disputes.

• In 2% of cases, buyers attempted to replace the returned product with a pacifier.

Almost half (49%) of sellers emphasized that trading on marketplaces will become much more difficult in 2024: among the main reasons are increased competition, rising advertising costs and lack of advertising metrics necessary. 26% of sellers who experienced quick returns suggested that the “buyers” could be competitors or people they hired.

Previously, the electronics seller M.Video-Eldorado appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee of Russia with a request to initiate criminal proceedings against several Samara residents who returned defective electronic products. According to the retailer, the buyers themselves damaged the merchandise and then invented opinions of independent experts about the defects and demanded large compensation from the company.

More than 4.6 thousand entrepreneurs (sellers and owners of order delivery points) aged 27 years or older participated in the FOST survey.