The marketplace imposes unfavorable contract terms for sellers, the service said.
FAS Russia examined the company's practices and concluded that the offer to sell goods on the Wildberries website contained terms and conditions that had the features of imposing unfavorable contractual terms on sellers.
"In the period from 2022 to 2023, the FAS of Russia received a large number of appeals from citizens and organizations indicating signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation by Wildberries LLC, which is the owner of the Wildberries electronic trading platform. FAS of Russia studied the company's practices and came to the conclusion that the offer to sell goods on the Wildberries website contains conditions that have signs of imposing unfavorable contract terms on sellers,"
the agency said in a statement.
Specifically, the Service found that the company's tariffs for logistics and storage services were subject to almost daily changes.
"This could materially affect sellers and the terms and conditions under which they conduct their business on the Marketplace. The terms of the marketplace on imposing penalties on sellers whose personal accounts were hacked by third parties are disproportionate,"
noted the FAS.
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 and the conditions for imposing penalties on sellers for unauthorized access to their personal accounts are not defined.
In the opinion of the FAS of Russia, these actions of Wildberrys contain signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation.
"The Service has 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 worsening of conditions for Wildberries' counterparties,"
stated the agency.
In case of failure to fulfill the warning, the agency has the right to initiate proceedings for violation of antimonopoly legislation.
The Service reminded that on March 28, 2024 the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation on abolishing the moratorium on antimonopoly inspections of IT companies came into force.
