FAS ISSUED A WARNING TO WILDBERRIES

In the period from 2022 to 2023, the FAS Russia received a large number of appeals from citizens and organizations indicating signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation by Wildberries LLC, the owner of the Wildberries electronic trading platform.

The FAS Russia examined the company's practices and concluded that the offer for the sale of goods on the Wildberries website contains conditions that have signs of imposing unfavorable contractual terms on sellers.

The FAS Russia found that the company's tariffs for logistics and storage services are subject to almost daily changes. It can significantly affect sellers and the conditions of their activities on the marketplace. The terms of the marketplace on imposing penalties on sellers whose personal accounts were hacked by third parties are disproportionate.

The marketplace also sets restrictions on the placement of sellers' contact information. In addition, the conditions for changing the company's tariffs for logistics services and storage of goods, as well as the conditions for imposing penalties on sellers for unauthorized access to their personal accounts are not defined.

According to the FAS Russia, these actions of Wildberries contain signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation*.

The FAS Russia issued a warning to the company. The marketplace must make changes to the offer for the sale of goods on the Wildberries website, as well as stop practices that contain signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation. At the same time, the execution of the warning should not lead to deterioration of conditions for Wildberry's counterparties.

In case of failure to comply with the warning, the FAS Russia has the right to initiate a case on violation of antimonopoly legislation.

It should be reminded that on March 28, 2024, the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on lifting the moratorium on antimonopoly inspections of IT companies came into force.

*signs of violation of Article 10.1 of the Law on Protection of Competition, in the form of actions provided for in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition