Retail Chains May Be Obliged to Have Russian Goods in the Assortment

According to the draft Federal Law “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On the Basics of State Regulation of Trade Activities in the Russian Federation" (the “Draft”), Russian retail chains must ensure the availability of a certain number of non-food products of Russian origin.

We note that retail chains are a combination of two or more retail venues that belong to persons of the same group in accordance with the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition”, or that are used under one trade name or other means of individualization¹. Please note that the rule does not apply to retail chains, in case of:

• if the total revenue from the sale of goods within one retail chain for the last calendar year does not exceed 2 billion rubles;
• if the assortment of the retail chain consists only of goods marked with trademarks, the exclusive rights to which belong to one copyright holder².

In addition, at the moment there is no concept of “goods of Russian origin” in Russian legislation, but the Draft defines criteria for classifying products as such goods:

• the goods are produced by citizens of the Russian Federation or Russian legal entities on the territory of the Russian Federation; and at the same time
• such legal entities from 1 January 2022 should not be under the control of foreign persons. Control is defined according to the rules provided for by Federal Law No. 57-FZ of 29 April 2008 “On the Procedure for Foreign Investments in Legal Entities of Strategic Importance for ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the State”³. Herewith, citizens of the Republic of Belarus whose exclusive rights to the means of individualization of products belong to Russian persons and persons of the Republic of Belarus are not recognized as foreign persons⁴.

Thus, suppliers of goods of Russian origin are also required to provide retail chains with information and documents confirming the supplied goods meet the criteria of goods of Russian origin, including written declarations of manufacturers drawn up in a free form⁵. We believe that it can be about the manufacturer's assurances about the country of origin of the goods.

According to the Draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is authorized to determine the number and (or) the share of trade names (articles) of goods of Russian origin that should be on the shelves of retail chains⁶. At the same time, the general procedure for determining and changing the above quantitative values is established by the Government of the Russian Federation⁷. Control over compliance with these requirements, in accordance with the Draft, should be carried out by the Rospotrebnadzor of the Russian Federation⁸.

According to the Draft, the new rules will come into force on 1 March 2024⁹.

¹ Clause 8 of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 381-FZ of 28 December 2009 “On the Basics of State Regulation of Trade Activities in the Russian Federation”
² Clause 1 of Article 1 of the Draft
³ Clause 1 of Article 5 of Federal Law No. 57-FZ of 29 April 2008 “On the Procedure for Foreign Investments in Legal Entities of Strategic Importance for ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the State
⁴ Clause 2 of Article 1 of the Draft
5 Clause 4 of Article 1 of the Draft
6 Clause 4 of Article 1 of the Draft
⁷ Clause 4 of Article 1 of the Draft
⁸ Clause 5 of Article 1 of the Draft
⁹ Article 2 of the Draft