Ekaterina Papchenkova, partner at the Center for
"The regulation enshrined in the draft law will have a positive impact on the contribution of platforms to the economy, maintaining its positive dynamics, for the following reasons.
Firstly, the resulting version of the law reflects the current status quo and does not impose strong restrictions or obligations on platforms, which means that platforms will not have to incur burdensome compliance costs. There is also a delayed effective date for the regulation, which will allow platforms to adapt their services to the new requirements.
Secondly, the law removes a number of controversial issues, creating legal certainty for platforms (for example: the civil law status of relations with implementing partners, rights and obligations in relation to partners and consumers, the status of PVZ as a
Thirdly, as in the recently adopted Chinese antitrust regulation of platforms, the Russian platform law provides for extraterritorial effect and measures to compel foreign platform operators to comply with the law. This reduces the risks of unequal competitive conditions for Russian and foreign platforms when the new regulation is introduced.
It is worth noting that in the current reduction the regulation of platforms has turned out to be rather soft compared to similar laws in China, Turkey, Brazil and the EU. In the USA, in the absence of strict regulation at the level of law, judicial practice in the sphere of protection of consumers' rights of platforms and in the sphere of antitrust control is developing.
On the one hand, lenient regulation is justified from the point of view of potential expansion of Russian platforms abroad and creation of conditions for such expansion. Overly burdensome requirements would slow down the growth of platforms even in the national market.
On the other hand, there is a risk of “preservation” of certain unfair practices on platforms, which in general worsen the business climate in this area and do not contribute to the sustainable growth of platforms. The fairer and more transparent the rules of the game on platforms, the more traditional businesses are ready to scale and develop their activities on platforms, providing together with platforms a higher contribution to the economy," explained Ekaterina Papchenkova.