In Russia, create a register of allowed online stores

Rospotrebnadzor initiated the creation of a register of online stores that have the right to work in Russia. This proposal concerns not only domestic but also foreign organizations. The authors of the initiative propose to oblige online stores to indicate their Internet addresses when registering with the Federal Tax Service. This supposedly should save the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet from shadow commerce. Sites will be tied in the registry to a specific legal entity, and customer complaints will be sent to the site owner, Izvestia writes .



So far, it is unclear what measures will be taken in respect of those who refused to register or were excluded from the "white list". According to experts familiar with this initiative, the sites that will not be registered with the Federal Tax Service are planned to be blocked. The opinions of market participants on the legality of such actions are different. Some believe that all this had to be done several years ago, others argue that measures of this kind are not needed.



The Rospotrebnadzor initiative was prepared by the department in the framework of the development of an action plan for a strategy of state policy in the field of consumer protection until 2030. According to this document, legal entity and individual entrepreneurs will be obliged to register in the FTS the domain name of the site, which is used to provide a service or sell goods. The draft law will be ready in 2019. In addition to other data, the e-mail address of the online store will also be recorded. This is necessary to establish a reliable communication channel with supervisory authorities.



“We have been working on this topic for a long time and recommend everyone to pay attention to the growth of e-commerce. Such a register will allow, firstly, to estimate the volume of the e-commerce market, and secondly, to provide the user with real contacts of the online store, ”said Sergey Grebennikov, head of the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies (ROCIT).



According to the director of the legal department of Ozon.ru, Nadezhda Belova, additional regulation of online stores is not required. “Everything is dynamic on the Internet, so many resources will be required to maintain the current registry. If you make such a requirement part of the licensing process, the market will go even further into the shadows, ”she said.



The report of Rospotrebnadzor “Consumer Protection in the Russian Federation in 2016” states that the number of consumer complaints about online shopping is increasing every year. So, in 2012 there were 3,412, and in 2016, already 8,765. Officials see the problem in that “the seller is often anonymous”. And this anonymity is “absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of general requirements of the law, since non-disclosure of such information calls into question the possibility of a claim settlement and significantly complicates access to justice.”