Sellers complain that they cannot export their products because the goods are either blocked or their export is paid. Some sellers have completely lost access to the online platform. To challenge the fines, they filed complaints with the police, sent a collective pre-trial claim to the marketplace and are preparing to go to court.
More than 160 suppliers of smoking pipes and nicotine-free vapes turned to the Wildberries marketplace with a collective pre-trial claim. They are trying to challenge the fines accrued by the online platform in the amount of more than 600 million rubles. Earlier, he wrote about the fines on the Baza Telegram channel. Forbes reviewed a copy of the document prepared by the sellers. Its authenticity was confirmed by Alexander Efimov, CEO of the law firm Fox Legal Consulting, who represents the interests of the sellers.
The document says that Wildberries unilaterally and without prior notice changed the clauses of the offer for sellers regarding the sale of goods prohibited by the site. Sellers complain that there was no list of prohibited goods in the message, the marketplace did not provide sellers with sufficient time to remove the goods from the company’s warehouses, and they have to pay 113 rubles for the return of each item.
The sellers demand the opportunity to either pick up their goods for free or sell them in a short time, as well as cancel the imputed fines, the claim states.
When did the fines start?
On February 3, Wildberries issued a message that it was introducing a ban on the sale of nicotine-free vapes and smoking blends. The ban went into effect on February 7. Representatives of the online retailer clarified in an interview with Forbes that they warned the sellers in advance – the marketplace made changes to the offer contract from January 31.
“Nicotine-containing products have been banned at Wildberries before. But in February, we decided to also ban the sale of nicotine-free products on the platform. Faced with the fact that part of the sellers under the guise of nicotine-free products sold goods with nicotine. In addition, the “harmlessness” of nicotine-free products is also highly questionable – at a minimum, it promotes the culture of smoking among the younger generation, which leads to the consumption of cigarettes and vapes, ”explained a representative of Wildberries.
Sellers have their own opinion. “Many sellers heeded the requirements of Wildberries and removed cards with inappropriate products,” says lawyer Efimov. – In the 20th of February, sellers began to receive fines of 25,000 rubles for each unit of goods that were removed (the program does not allow the seller to independently remove the card for the product, he must send it to the basket, where deletion will be possible only after 28 days . – Forbes), were in the process of delivery / return, or had nothing to do with prohibited goods, such as pipes or hookahs.
In all cases, the penalty was justified as follows: “Penalty for violating the site rules. Placement of an offer for the sale of Goods prohibited through the Portal by the legislation of the Russian Federation (vape) ”(spelling and punctuation preserved. – Forbes).
Forbes has reviewed the screenshot of this message.
What are these fines for?
According to a Wildberries representative, some sellers continued to violate the law and platform rules: new product cards with smoking products were created. “Later, we even launched a bot program to remove unwanted product cards, as we encountered a large number of violations, which we also publicly informed the public about. In some cases, there are 500-800 such offers per seller,” he says.
The sellers appreciated the work of the bot program. “It became obvious to us that the bot was working. Absolutely everyone who had “Smoking Goods” in their product category received fines, ”says the owner of a large store at Wildberries. “I have about 10,000 cards posted (the seller has several accounts on the marketplace. – Forbes), these are POD systems (small systems for heating liquids for smoking. – Forbes), so I received fines of almost 60 million rubles.”
“There have been fines for e-cigarettes, POD systems, lighters and even smoking pipes. Our fine is almost 1.5 million rubles. I can’t pick up the goods, because they are blocked in the warehouses of Wildberries, but the marketplace regularly deducts funds from me for storing this product, ”says another seller.
“The last shipment of my product (smoking liquids) was on January 31, 2023. After changing the offer, I moved all product cards to the basket. But in the 20th of February, I received a fine of almost 500,000 rubles for a product that was sold before the offer was changed, ”says the store owner at Wildberries. According to her, marketplace support does not constructively respond to complaints.
collectively to court
On March 2, an initiative group of sellers (about 40 people in total) visited the Wildberries office on Leninskaya Sloboda Street. Efimov provided Forbes with video recordings.
According to the lawyer, the sellers wanted to get clarification and submit a collective claim. “Representatives of Wildberries did not come out to us and refused to accept the claim. The sellers called the police, about 20 statements were made to hold Wildberries management accountable for fraud. As a result, the complaint was sent by registered mail,” says Yefimov.
This information was confirmed by sellers polled by Forbes.
A representative of Wildberries called the fact of the meeting “an attempt to put pressure on sellers of smoking products”, the arrival of the initiative group – “an attempt to cause disturbances in the office”, as a result of which the Wildberries company itself was forced to call the police. “We will not change our principled position: although such products are not prohibited, they are potentially harmful, and they have no place on Wildberries,” said the representative of the marketplace.
He assures that the company has not received an “official pre-trial claim”, and does not exclude that “statements about its existence are only part of a PR campaign to put pressure on us.”
Efimov said that according to the regulations, Wildberries have 30 days to consider a collective complaint. “If the demands of the sellers are not satisfied, we will prepare a class action lawsuit,” he promises.