On July 1, 2025, ICC Russia held a roundtable discussion of intellectual property rights.  The discussion focused on key legislative challenges in a platform economy environment, i.e. the issues of liability, counterfeit products and inefficiency of struggling against massive offences.

The participants' attention was focused on the new bill, On Platform Economy in the Russian Federation, proposed by Russia's Economic Development Ministry in February 2025.  This bill marked the first attempt of a systematic regulation of digital platforms, such as OZON, Yandex.Market and Wildberries.

What does the bill propose to change?

• It imposes liability upon the platforms for the published content and sold products;

• It requires a higher degree of transparency of contractual relations with vendors;

• It is aimed at protection of consumers' rights.

Yet, the bill may create an extra burden on businesses, and small and medium enterprises, in particular.

The attendees expressed their concern over:

• a potential increase of marketplace fees;

• loss of efficiency in the struggle against counterfeit products in the event of over-regulation.

According to Aleksey Darkov, Counsel, Head of VERBA LEGAL's Intellectual Property Practice, and Attorney, attention should be paid to the current case law on offences.  For instance, the issue of identification of products on marketplaces remains unresolved.  In a recent case, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation imposed upon the plaintiff the burden of identifying the number of counterfeit products, even in the absence of contra-calculation on the part of the defendant.  Aleksey emphasized the importance of the balance between protection of consumers' rights and proprietors subject to simultaneous preservation of flexibility for digital platforms.