ACIT will assume the role of an “arbitrator” in conflicts between online sellers and consumers

The Association of E-commerce Companies (ACIT) will assume the role of an “arbitrator” in conflicts between online merchants and consumers.

To this end, a special platform will be launched on the basis of AKIT. While it will exist in the framework of the experiment. The experiment will be funded by companies belonging to AKIT - Svyaznoy, M-Video, Eldorado, Yulmart and others. Innovation will allow to implement the pre-trial conflict resolution mechanism. However, expert opinions on this issue are divided. So, some lawyers, in order to minimize conflicts, suggest simply increasing legal costs.
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About this initiative, the newspaper "Izvestia" said the source, who attended the relevant meeting in the Ministry of Economic Development on August 31.

The press service of the ministry confirmed that “on the initiative, the pilot experiment is ready to be realized by market participants”. True, the launch date of the AKIT platform is not yet known.

Artem Sokolov, a representative of the organization, noted that buyers will be able to try to resolve the conflict in the pretrial order on this site after complaining to the store. The consumer must provide any paper or electronic correspondence that will confirm the existence of a conflict. “After that, representatives of the independent Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights will consider the dispute,” explained Artem Sokolov.

For shops-violators it is planned to organize something like “boards of shame”, which will be distributed online. So buyers will be able to bypass the careless retailers.

Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Internet problems, German Klimenko, believes that "pre-trial regulation is always good." He noted that it is important on what site conflicts are resolved, “in order for decisions to be recognized, the confidence of the participants is necessary”.

Representatives of Rospotrebnadzor, which acts as a regulator of the law on consumer protection, expressed bewilderment about the initiative: and without such mechanisms, no one bothers to resolve conflicts in the pretrial order.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development, which was the initiator of the appearance of such a platform in Russia, such a mechanism can resolve up to 80% of all conflict situations and, as a result, reduce the burden on the judicial system. Only the most difficult situations will be sent to court.

According to the Consumer Union, the number of citizens' complaints about online shopping has exceeded 100,000 in 2015. At the same time, according to the forecast of public organizations, taking into account the dynamic growth of the electronic commerce sphere for 2017–2018, the number of such requests will reach more than 200 thousand per year.

According to Artem Sokolov, a similar system of conflict resolution has been used within ACIT itself since 2012. Every year she reviews up to 300 customer complaints. For the participants of ACIT, this system operates free of charge; in addition, serious punishments can be applied to violators in certain situations, including exclusion from the organization.

The platform for resolving disputes between online sellers and buyers in the European Union was launched in February 2016. “Therefore, it’s too early to talk about any practice of application, the pros and cons,” said the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“This is an opportunity for a consumer, a buyer in electronic stores, to quickly resolve problems with an electronic store, without going to court. The mechanism is about the same as in the European Union. We expect that over time this will be an electronic platform, where any consumer can simply write a complaint to an electronic store. An electronic store, if it agrees with it, will satisfy it very quickly, without any judicial procedures, and if it does not agree, then there will be additional procedures, or you can go to court, ”said Oleg Fomichev, deputy head of the Ministry of Economic Development.

In online trading, the pre-trial procedure for resolving conflicts is relevant because market participants, primarily large online stores, complain that buyers began abusing the right to protect consumers, he said. A whole series of law firms in the interests of buyers are beginning to go to the courts with massive claims for any reason in order to shake off money from retailers. ”

The idea will still be discussed with the expert community, as there are different opinions:

“There are those who are for, there are those who say that if electronic companies themselves do this, then there will be less trust. We need to create something with the consumer protection society, it takes more time and requires additional funding. ”

“Here we must decide on the model: either we follow the model, when there is a ready infrastructure and people want to do it, or we are slowing down and trying to create something more common, but also more expensive at the same time,” Fomichev concluded.

Denis Frolov, partner of the law firm BMS Law Firm, told Izvestia that it’s quite profitable to represent deceived buyers in court. “According to the law, a penalty in the amount of 50% of the amount originally claimed is charged to the deceived customer.”

The chairman of the “Starinsky, Korchago and Partners” Bar, Yevgeny Korchago, believes that the increase in the number of disputes in the field of online trading is due to the growth of this market segment. He is confident that reducing the number of conflicts considered in court may increase the amount of legal costs charged to the losing party.

Internet commerce development strategy

By the end of 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will prepare an e-commerce development strategy until 2025. The agency will focus on domestic and cross-border online sales, as well as highlight problems that should make the industry more accessible and convenient for entrepreneurs. Similar tasks have already been formulated by colleagues from the Ministry of Economic Development.

First, it will be about domestic electronic commerce - the removal of restrictions on trade in goods on the Internet.

Second, the prospects for cross-border trade — purchases made by Russians in foreign stores will be determined. The ministry is ready to equate the rights of domestic and foreign retailers, with the latter imputed VAT, which is already paid by their colleagues in Russia.

Third, the strategy will affect the export trade of Russian goods and technology. In this section, now there is only a paragraph about a realistic scheme for the return of VAT or zero tax.

On March 14, Viktor Zvagelsky, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, introduced the draft amendments to the law on the regulation of the alcohol market. The bill proposes to allow trade in alcohol through the Internet. However, as long as it remains a personal initiative of the deputy. If the project is approved, online retailer revenues can increase significantly.

Price of progress

In the US, online shopping revenue growth has already led to a reduction in the number of employees working in traditional retail chains. Large online retailers - Amazon and eBay - occupy an increasing share of the trading market.

If online stores did not exist, 1.2 million more Americans would work in retail.

The ratio of gross revenue per year to the number of employees at online stores is $ 1.27 million per person versus $ 279 thousand for classic retail. Online stores pay higher wages to their employees. According to data for June 2016, they are paid $ 27.14 per hour. At the same time, the industry average employees are paid $ 17.92.

According to official US statistics, labor productivity in online commerce in 2015 increased by 6%, while in the USA as a whole it grew only by 0.8%.