The government has submitted to the State Duma a draft federal law on the platform economy

The proposed law defines the "legal basis for the platform economy in the Russian Federation and regulates relations arising between operators of intermediary digital platforms, their partners and users in connection with the sale of goods, performance of work, and provision of services." The document also defines the terms "platform economy" and "digital platform" for the first time in the Russian legal field.

Thus, a digital platform, in the view of the developers, is an information system or a website on the Internet or programs for electronic computers that provide technical, organizational, informational and other opportunities for interaction of an unlimited number of people, including for the purpose of exchanging information and disseminating it, selling goods, performing work and providing services. The authors of the project propose to verify platforms that ensure interaction between operators, partners and users and provide for the placement of orders and product cards, making transactions, making payments for goods and services as intermediary digital platforms and maintain a register of such sites, i.e. marketplaces.

The draft also includes a requirement for marketplace holders to provide partners on their platforms with the technical ability to place information on the seller's permits and licenses, and information on labeling in the product card. The regulation also contains a ban on placing product cards on marketplaces for medicines and medical devices that have not been registered or withdrawn from circulation, dietary supplements that are not permitted for use in the country. Marketplace operators themselves are required to indicate the goods that must be labeled in Russia.

The proposed version of the federal law establishes a mandatory procedure for pre-trial appeal of the actions and inactions of the marketplace operator (blocking of cards, lowering the partner's rating, worsening the position of the product card in search results) directly on the platform itself.

In parallel with the new law, the Russian Government submitted two satellite projects to the lower house of parliament. The first envisages the adaptation of Russian law to the new Federal Law. Amendments are supposed to be made to the laws "On the Protection of Consumer Rights" and "On the Fundamentals of State Regulation of Trade Activity in the Russian Federation."

The second document contains amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. It is proposed to expand it with two new articles - "Failure to comply with requirements by the operator of an intermediary digital platform" and "Violation of requirements for posting offers to sell goods". Financial sanctions are proposed to be applied to both marketplace operators and their partner sellers. Thus, if the platform holder does not check the information about the person intending to become a partner through the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, regulators will be able to impose a fine on officials in the amount of 30 to 80 thousand rubles, and on legal entities - from 100 to 400 thousand rubles. The fine for marketplaces for violating the requirements for posting offers to sell goods may be from 30 to 70 thousand rubles, with an increase to 70-200 thousand rubles for a repeated violation.

The satellite projects could come into force on March 1, 2027.

The draft law "On the platform economy" was first published in late November 2024, but e-commerce representatives criticized the document: 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 provisions of the draft law were too strict and could hinder the development of digital platforms. In early December, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin ordered adjustments to the draft federal law and related bills.

The Ministry of Economic Development announced the readiness of the new version of the project at the end of February 2025. In particular, it was planned to fix the obligation of marketplaces to check the accuracy of information provided by sellers on certain categories of goods, including dietary supplements, medicines and medical devices, in the federal law. According to the department's representatives, more than 400 pages of proposals submitted by business representatives, associations and experts were taken into account during the development of the new version of the document.

The Ministry of Economic Development planned to submit the bill to the State Duma in the first quarter of 2025, but industry associations once again pointed out shortcomings in the document being developed. Thus, in March, representatives of the Association of Internet Trade Companies sent a letter to the responsible department complaining that the proposed fines were too high. For violations by marketplaces of the requirements for posting partner offers, the fine for officials was to be set at 60-100 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 500 thousand to 1 million rubles, in case of repeated failure to comply with the requirements, it was proposed to collect 100-200 thousand rubles from officials, and 1-2 million rubles from legal entities.

In February 2025, the Ministry of Economic Development reported that the new law could come into force in September 2025, but in April the estimated date was moved to March 2026. In late June - early July, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin reported that the regulations are scheduled to come into force on March 1, 2027. According to the Prime Minister, businesses will have "enough time" to prepare for the innovations. Mishustin also ordered to speed up the process of adopting the law.