Photo: Izvestia/Kristina Kormilitsyn
The draft law on marketplaces has met with public opposition. The Consumer Union of the Russian Federation criticised the MPs' proposal to make online marketplaces responsible for the goods they sell. This is stated in the organisation's response to the Ministry of Industry and Trade - such an obligation may push up prices, according to the public. If the rule is introduced, online marketplaces will start to recoup their costs at the expense of sellers of goods through fines and increased commissions. Previously, the Ministry of Industry and Trade supported such a rule - in some cases, marketplaces should be held responsible for the quality of products.
Who is responsible
Public activists have criticised the MPs' intention to make marketplaces responsible for goods, as they only represent products on their platform. This follows from the response of the Consumer Union of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which the Izvestia newspaper has seen. The organization believes that such an obligation is unfair: it is the seller who does not fulfill agreements with the consumer, and the third party, in this case the aggregator, cannot be held responsible for the products.
"The marketplaces are not the owner of the goods, nor do they have any legal basis to pre-inspect their quality," the union said in its letter. After all, online marketplaces don't buy it from manufacturers, they are not bound by any relationship at all - that's the key.
In a conventional shop, the system is somewhat different. The retailer buys goods from the manufacturer under a supply contract, who is responsible for the quality of the product to his partner. Therefore, if customers make a product-related complaint against the retailer, the retailer will compensate them for the damage and then pass on the costs to the manufacturer. This follows from the contract between the partners.
However, the marketplace and the producer have no such contract - the aggregator does not purchase anything from the supplier. Therefore, if online marketplaces are required to be liable for goods, they will start to provide for compensation for these losses through penalties for sellers or increase the price of their services (i.e. commissions) for all participants in the sale. As a result, this will affect retail prices for consumers, the organisation suggested.
In the meantime, the unions say attention should focus on another problem: the aggregator does not always provide buyers with contact information for sellers. Yet this is precisely the information people need to be able to make a complaint if necessary.
Link to Izvestia
In September 2023, a group of deputies led by Sergei Mironov (Just Russia - For Truth) submitted a draft law on the regulation of marketplaces to the State Duma. This is an amendment to the Law on Trade and Consumer Protection. Thus, the draft establishes the peculiarities of contracts between aggregators and sellers: the document introduces a procedure for the application of fines by online trading platforms, and also establishes a ban on aggregators to sell their own goods if the marketplace's revenue exceeds 150 billion rubles, if similar products are already available on the site. In addition, the MPs proposed that aggregators should be held responsible for the quality of goods, i.e. they would be able to make claims if a person received defective products.
The correct message
The explanatory memorandum to the bill states: Conflicts between sellers and marketplaces between 2022 and 2023 have shown that the current system of regulation of the e-commerce sector is imperfect. Despite the potential abuses of the largest aggregators, at least 150,000 small businesses are affected in one way or another, affecting more than three million buyers.
As Dmitry Gusev (Fair Russia - For Truth), one of the co-authors of the bill, explained to Izvestia, in the case of marketplaces, it is about trading with concessions. This means that sellers hand over goods to aggregators for safekeeping and the products are transferred to their warehouses.
This means that marketplaces have the ability to control the quality of goods. We are sure that aggregators should become a kind of filter for products," the MP said. - When suppliers hand over goods to ordinary retailers, the retailers check them: they carry out laboratory tests, check quality certificates, that is, they take responsibility. Online marketplaces should also be responsible for goods destined for consumers because they allow them to enter the market - the working conditions for all traders should be the same.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade told Izvestia that it is currently working on a draft official government response to the MPs' initiative. The ministry added that the draft law introduces equal liability for the sale of low-quality goods for both marketplaces and sellers.
The consumer will have the right to complain about the purchase of poor quality goods to both the supplier and the marketplace. That is the correct message. However, clarification is needed: the legislators should specify the specific functions of the online marketplace. For example, it is not quite right to require the marketplace to carry out warranty repairs on behalf of the supplier or to provide replacement equipment for the duration of the repair," the ministry told Izvestia.
Marketplaces are primarily information intermediaries between sellers and buyers; in some cases, the website doesn't even see the goods - for example, when the seller delivers the order himself and the site acts as an online showcase, Wildberries said.
To enable the customer and retailer to communicate directly, Wildberries has introduced a chat function where customers can ask questions about the use of goods or arrange for the return of poor quality products," the company added.
The development of the draft law on the e-commerce market is an important step that will determine the future prospects of the entire industry and all market participants, Ozon CEO Sergei Belyakov told Izvestia. The company has repeatedly warned that the current version of the document poses significant risks for the e-commerce market because it does not take into account its specifics - different from the model of traditional retail. Requiring platforms to account for all sellers' products essentially kills the marketplace model as an aggregator of goods from hundreds of thousands of different sellers, he summarized.
Izvestia/gnews.cz-RoZ_07
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