On April 9, 2019, at the Museum of Cosmonautics KIAP, Attorneys at Law, held a seminar on topical issues of e-commerce in Russia. The relevance of the topic is explained by the active development of e-commerce in Russia, and no less regular changes and the emergence of new approaches to its regulation.
The program of the event included the most relevant and dramatic issues of the industry, identified directly by the actual participants of the e-commerce market following a survey conducted by KIAP lawyers at the beginning of the year.
AKIT President Artem Sokolov opened the seminar, telling participants about the development of the e-commerce market in Russia, as well as about the problems and perspectives for its development. KIAP Partner Ilya Ischukmade a presentation on the topic “The fifth antitrust package: a revolution in the regulation of “digital” markets?”. During the first session the participants also talked about marketing campaigns and the implementation of loyalty programs and their effect on the business as a whole. Vadim Baykov, Director General of TCC Retail Marketing, spoke about consumer loyalty and based on real cases shared his experience on the mechanics of loyalty programs with several major retailers, outlined trends in loyalty programs in terms of interactivity and digitalization.
The second session was devoted to the issues of GDPR and the processing of personal data of buyers. Maxim Lagutin, an expert on personal data protection and one of the founders of the B-152 company, jointly with Julia Kirpikova, Head of KIAP Commercial practice, Attorney at law, discussed with the participants why it is worth observing the requirements of the Federal Law 152 “On personal data” in e-commerce and retail, reviewed the main stages of law compliance of the company, as well as anticipated changes in the Federal Law 152 in the near future.
During the third session, issues of wire transfer payment for goods by consumers, the main risks and restrictions of different forms of payments were considered. Roman Suslov, a Senior Associate of KIAP, spoke about the impact of the method of payment on the price of the goods, reviewed the features of the chargeback operation, and also raised the issue of returning funds to payers and consumers. Followed by Roman, Partner Alexey Sizov discussed the topic of customs clearance of goods delivered to customers from outside the EAEU, and the head of Intellectual Property Practice of KIAP, patent attorney Elena Buranova, in her closing speech, spoke about trade aggregators and online stores as information intermediaries, indicating the conditions of exemption from liability in the event of claims and possible pitfalls arising in the course of the activity.
The list of participants of the seminar included heads of legal departments of major Russian and international companies, top managers, business owners and directors of companies, as well as heads of compliance and online sales departments.