Marketplaces proposed to withdraw from the moratorium on inspections of IT companies

The regulator will thus be able to analyze the activities of online platforms for compliance with their actions in relation to suppliers, antitrust laws. The FAS added that they advocate an equitable approach for all market participants.

The moratorium is provided for by a government decree of March 24, 2022. The document applies to accredited IT companies in Russia and provides for the prohibition of all types of state and municipal control, with the exception of unscheduled controls on the detection facts from databases with personal data leaked to the Internet or inappropriate advertising.

The Decree leaves to the regulatory authorities only the implementation of “preventive measures in the form of advice, information, self-examination.” This regime is valid until the end of 2024.

The issue of the resumption of inspections is being discussed in the context of a dispute between Wildberries and the owners of the collection points (POI), which began in mid-March.

• On March 14, the owners of the distribution points went to the Wildberries headquarters in Moscow and threatened to close it due to the new working conditions. In particular, it was established that if a customer returns a replaced or defective product, the market discounts its cost to the employee of the withdrawal point. In addition, information appeared in the personal accounts of employees that if they have such a debt, they will not be able to withdraw their money from the system.
• On March 15, dozens of collection points in the Urals, Siberia and the Far East joined the strike against the new system of market fines.
• Subsequently, Wildberries began to remove goods from the collection point, whose employees are participating in the strike, and deactivate all collection points, whose representatives traveled to the Wildberries headquarters in Moscow on March 14.
• Earlier, the company called the information about the strike “not true” but admitted that it closed some distribution points that “choose uncivilized forms of dialogue, threaten platform representatives and try to disrupt the work of the office.”
• On March 16, Wildberries stopped accruing new fines on PIU owners for “substituting” property. The market also began to return money to the owners of the collection points, who were previously fined.
• On March 17, the marketplace created a special commission to resolve issues between marketplaces and Opora Rossii-based collection partners.