A still unknown organization, the Electronic Commerce Union, asked the Investigative Committee of Russia and the Prosecutor General’s Office to check the actions of the Wildberries management for possible fraud. The head of the union, Georgy Volkov, in his appeal to the TFR and the Prosecutor General’s Office, said that the marketplace blocked sellers’ goods for 50 billion rubles and suppliers’ funds for more than 2 billion rubles without a court decision.
The company itself denies this and regards the statement as unfriendly actions on the part of a small group of unscrupulous sellers who do not negotiate with the company. Interestingly, the above organization did not have a website, there is only a telegram channel with nine subscribers, created on May 25, 2023.
Two weeks earlier, Wildberries reported that it had “uncovered illegal ways to promote” on the site using external services. The company estimated the damage at 650 million rubles. Here is what the Business FM radio station said about the development of the conflict in the press service of the marketplace:
“Immediately after we discovered a fraudulent scheme for promoting goods on the platform, we began negotiations with the sellers who were participants in it. Already in 60% of cases, the verification has been completed, payments are already underway. Now we are talking only about the suspension of payments for about 120 sellers, while investigative actions and internal checks are underway. At the same time, sellers have full access to their personal account and the ability to manage it. If the check confirms that there was no fraud on the part of the sellers, then on June 10, after its completion, payments can start again. We call on the initiative group of sellers whose payments have been suspended to start discussing with the company possible ways to resolve the situation and joint solutions. We are open to interaction and call on the lawyers of the initiative group to choose the path of constructive negotiations, rather than threats and violation of public order. Public scandals and pressure on the company and law enforcement agencies are not the way to resolve the situation. We are sincerely sorry that this group of sellers has chosen the path of escalation, abuse of rights, spreading slander. They refused to negotiate with the company and to seek a solution in the legal field.”
The sellers’ organization’s claims now look dubious, says Denis Kosenkov, vice president of the Russian Retail Market Association:
“We are seeing action on behalf of the E-Commerce Union, which has just entered the public arena. I couldn’t find this organization anywhere, I’m not sure if it even exists. Most importantly, according to Wildberries, there is no official claim from the sellers. If so, then a big question arises. What situation do we have? There is a formal claim on the part of Wildberries against business partners, and there is no civil law written claim under the contract that must appear before people go to court. What conclusions can be drawn? If the human rights activists who represent themselves on behalf of these individuals have a goal to help entrepreneurs, then the first step is to send a reasonable claim to Wildberries. That the longer there are no such claims, the less procedural opportunity these people have to file a claim.”
Wildberries says that about 300 sellers took advantage of the unfair promotion of goods, which is why their accounts on the site were indeed blocked. Wildberries announced on May 23 that it decided to resume cooperation with 60% of sellers. About 70 sellers of the marketplace came to the company’s headquarters demanding that their accounts be unblocked.