The Ministry of Economic Development plans to tighten control over the sale of medical products on marketplaces

The head of the government apparatus, Dmitry Grigorenko, emphasized that the document provides for norms on protecting consumers from purchasing uncertified and hazardous goods, creating convenient services, and ensuring predictability of interaction between citizens and businesses with digital platforms. Such innovations, according to Grigorenko, should create a "comfortable business environment" and also become the basis for further development of the potential of the platform economy.

"One of the main innovations of the bill is the norm that defines the responsibility of platforms and their partners to consumers. Thus, platforms will have to check partners through the Unified Identification and Authentication System and state registers, not allow unverified sellers and service providers to the platform, as well as product cards without information on compliance with mandatory requirements (labeling, certification, etc.). For certain categories, they must check the accuracy of the information provided (dietary supplements, drugs, medical devices, pesticides, etc.). If an illegal offer is detected, it must be stopped," explained First Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Kolesnikov. If the bill is adopted, service moderators will not be able to allow unverified sellers and service providers to their platforms.

Earlier, the lawmakers from the A Just Russia party proposed to enshrine the rule that could tighten control over dietary supplements on marketplaces in the law On the Protection of Consumer Rights. They considered it necessary to oblige electronic platforms to check the accuracy of the information provided to the consumer about the quality and main consumer properties of dietary supplements, their composition and manufacturer. If false information about supplements is found, the lawmakers proposed to oblige marketplaces to suspend sales of products until the identified violations are eliminated. Experts interviewed by Vademecum, however, doubted the ability of the proposed adjustments to change the situation on the market, since no sanctions were provided for marketplaces for failure to comply with the rule proposed by parliamentarians. At the moment, the document has not yet reached the first reading.

Ivan Dyndikov, Director of Development of the Union of Dietary Supplement Manufacturers, commenting for Vademecum on the essence of the new initiative of the Ministry of Economic Development, emphasized that the turnover of medicines in general is regulated more strictly: “Medicines receive a registration certificate, and their production and sale are licensed activities. Yes, medicines can be found on marketplaces, since pharmacy chains are represented there, which, naturally, have a license, and Ozon itself has been licensed and has the right to sell medicines.”

Dyndikov noted that in addition to registered medicines, marketplaces also sell drugs that are illegally imported from abroad. “In addition, drugs with potent pharmaceutical substances are sold, which could actually be considered unregistered medicines, but they are disguised as dietary supplements,” the expert explained. “Unfortunately, all platforms sell prescription hormonal drugs, medicinal doses of vitamin D, and much more. These products are not dietary supplements and would not be able to pass state registration with such a composition, and as a supporting document, sellers provide a declaration of conformity for some complex food additives, which is a violation in terms of incorrect identification of the product and misleading the consumer.”

Since marketplaces have integration with the Rosaccreditation registry, Ivan Dyndikov continued, “this allows unscrupulous sellers to add a link to the federal service’s website to pseudo-dietary supplement cards, which is perceived by the consumer as confirmation of the product’s quality.” “It is important to note here that the declaration is declarative in nature (not accompanied by preliminary checks). And I would like to draw the attention of consumers to the fact that according to declarations of conformity, only four categories of “true” food additives can be legally sold in retail: baking soda, citric acid, sweeteners, and food colorings. When looking at the display cases of marketplaces, the consumer should be very attentive and remember that dietary supplements must have a certificate of state registration, and according to the declaration of conformity, you can buy soda, but not vitamins,” Dyndikov concluded.

The Ministry of Economic Development emphasized that the main regulation of the new bill is focused on resolving issues related to the activities of intermediary digital platforms that make it possible to simultaneously place an offer for the sale of goods or services, conclude a transaction and make a payment. The document will establish the definition of the concepts of "platform economy", "digital platform", "intermediary digital platform", "order pick-up point", "product card" and others. The law is also supposed to establish the mandatory content of contracts with sellers, performers, owners of order pick-up points, the procedure for changing such contracts, rules for providing discounts on goods, reconciliation statements of mutual settlements, and the application of sanctions. The developers also provided for the introduction of a digital pre-trial dispute resolution system.

In addition, the bill should include an algorithm of actions when detecting "deficiencies" in goods and services. Thus, the developers reported on the consolidation in the document of the functionality of presenting demands to the seller for the return of funds and goods through pick-up points or courier delivery.

The bill was first published in late November 2024, but e-commerce representatives criticized the document at the time: some experts believed that the proposed regulations were too biased towards traditional retail and proposed tightening the requirements for e-commerce, while others insisted that the bill's provisions were too strict and could hinder the development of digital platforms. In early December, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin ordered that the draft federal law and accompanying bills be adjusted.

Now the Ministry of Economic Development has clarified that during the development of the new version of the document, more than 400 pages of proposals submitted by business representatives, associations and experts were taken into account. The bill is planned to be submitted to the State Duma for consideration in the first quarter, and if approved, it could come into force as early as September 2025.