A New List of Goods for Parallel Imports Created in Russia

A New List of Goods for Parallel Imports Created in Russia
Photo: ikea.com 14.03.2023 669

The list of the Ministry of Industry and Trade will include IKEA goods, toys, motor oils, spare parts, cosmetics and many others, the Izvestia newspaper reported.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has expanded the list of goods to be supplied to the country under the parallel import scheme. In the future the list may increase: the ministry intends to include not only individual brands, but their parent companies, that is, rights holders, told "Izvestia" in the department.

The list is extended by a number of brands of motor oils (Shell Helix, Rimula), home appliances (Zanussi, Wahl), cosmetics and perfumes (Kerastase, Yves Saint Laurent), spare parts for agricultural and marine equipment (Caterpillar, Bauer Kompressoren), toys and children's products, such as Hasbro, Logitech, Nintendo, also included 12 other car brands. Among them - Renault, Ford, Kia, Hyundai, Genesis, Dacia, Citroen, Mazda, Opel, Peugeot and Isuzu, said the press service of the agency. 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade told "Izvestia" that the changes are point-by-point and are associated with both the addition of brands to the list of goods allowed for parallel importation and with the exclusion of a number of brands that resumed supplies to Russia.

In addition, the agency reported that it is preparing to update its approach to the formation of the list. They confirmed that they are working on fine-tuning the mechanism in terms of the transition from the inclusion of the list of brands to the inclusion of rights holders. This will simplify the administration of the procedure.

The restructuring of the list based on the right owners names is aimed at overcoming the consequences of limitation or termination of delivery of goods or services by the producers, the press service of FAS noted. The proposed changes will help to eliminate the risks of delaying the import procedure for parallel importers - the final version of the changes in the process of interagency coordination, added the antimonopoly service.

At the end of March, after the sanctions were imposed, the government allowed independent importers to import certain groups of goods into the country without permission from the rights holder. At the same time, there has been no real legalization of parallel imports in the country, says Alexey Ivanov, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.

"We never legalized parallel imports: legally it should sound like a transition to the international principle of exhaustion of trademark rights, which we departed from in 2002-2006 during WTO accession negotiations. The March Acts merely introduced temporary exemptions from the current prohibition," 

Ivanov noted.

The Civil Code retains the national principle of exhaustion of trademark rights, i.e. parallel imports are still prohibited. The exemptions from the current ban are adopted for a limited period of time - it is understood that until the completion of the special military operation. The list of goods allowed for parallel imports is not formed transparently, and the administrative apparatus of control over the ban on parallel imports and the system of administrative pressure on business is preserved, emphasized the director of the BRICS Centre.

Source: Izvestia

parallel imports  Russia 

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