Russia's Top Three Platforms Sign Industry Self-Regulation Pact: Eliminating 'Commission Discrimination', Mandating Advance Notice for Key Financial Policy Changes

Ebrun Exclusive, June 5: During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026), Russia's three major platforms—Wildberries, Ozon, and Avito—jointly signed a supplementary agreement to the 'Memorandum of Good Practices for Digital Platforms.' They have committed to implementing equal commission policies for Russian and foreign sellers, and to further standardize platform promotions, settlement procedures, and seller rights protection mechanisms.

According to the agreement, platforms are prohibited from charging Russian sellers commissions higher than those actually applied to foreign partners. Furthermore, when adjusting key cooperation terms that affect fund settlement, such as payment cycles, platforms must notify sellers at least 45 days in advance.

Additionally, sellers have the right to refuse participation in promotional discount activities initiated solely by the platform without facing penalties such as search ranking demotion, traffic restrictions, product delisting, or store rating downgrades.

This supplementary agreement was facilitated and signed under the auspices of the Russian Association of Digital Platforms.

The association's members include major Russian digital platform companies such as Wildberries, Ozon, Avito, Sber, and Yandex. The agreement is viewed as a significant industry self-regulation arrangement ahead of the formal implementation of Russia's 'Platform Economy Law.' According to previously announced plans, the 'Platform Economy Law' is set to take effect on October 1, 2026, with the related memorandum seen as a trial mechanism for the industry to preemptively implement some regulatory requirements.

Automated promotion mechanisms have been one of the most contentious issues in Russia's e-commerce industry in recent years.

Over the past few years, sellers have repeatedly filed complaints with the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), alleging that platforms included their products in promotional activities without explicit authorization and forced seller participation by reducing search exposure and affecting recommendation rankings.

In the spring of 2025, following demands from antitrust authorities, major platforms gradually phased out the automated promotion model. Subsequently, however, platforms began to continue driving large-scale promotional activities by subsidizing discounts through reductions in their own commissions, in order to maintain price competitiveness.

Russian media reported that in some promotional campaigns, platform subsidies could even lower product selling prices by 30% to 50%. While this practice helps attract consumers and expand platform market share, it has also raised concerns among sellers and traditional retail channels about the fairness of market competition.

This supplementary agreement explicitly grants sellers the right to refuse participation in platform-subsidized promotions and prohibits platforms from implementing any form of traffic penalties, which is seen as a further response to the aforementioned disputes.

In addition to promotion mechanisms, the agreement also introduces new content addressing the governance of counterfeit goods and fake reviews. According to the agreement, each platform will adopt AI-based product review tools to strengthen product information verification and fake review identification. Simultaneously, a video recording mechanism will be introduced at order pickup points to enhance dispute resolution and risk control capabilities.

The Russian Association of Digital Platforms stated that this revision primarily addresses long-standing concerns raised by sellers and market participants, including commission fairness, settlement transparency, and platform promotion rules. The association hopes to retain the industry self-regulation mechanism after the formal implementation of the 'Platform Economy Law,' using the memorandum to pilot new governance models first and then incorporating mature experiences into the future legislative framework.

Analysts believe that, unlike previous regulations which mainly focused on pricing, commissions, and logistics fees, the latest agreement has begun to touch upon the governance of platform algorithms, including search ranking, traffic allocation, and recommendation mechanisms.

Ebrun will continue to track and report on this development.