“Leaving money from customers”: Wildberries started to charge commission for payments made with Visa and MasterCard cards Wildberries started to charge 3% commission for purchases made with Visa and Mastercard cards 10/12/2023, 14:59

Newspaper “Vedomosti” According to a source close to Wildberries, the leading Russian market has introduced a new commission of 3% of the purchase price for payments made with Visa and Mastercard cards. The innovation will be valid as of October 9. Dmitry Kolesnikov, Director of Development of Financial and Payment Services at Wildberries, confirmed this information to the publication. He claims this is an acquisition fee, meaning the bank processes a non-cash payment.

Wildberries can no longer directly process transactions on Visa and Mastercard cards issued in Russia, Kolesnikov said. At the same time, customers can pay for their orders using the Mir card, through the Fast Payment System (SPB) or SberPay, without additional commission. Moreover, in the second case, both Visa and Mastercard card holders will be able to purchase products without a 3% difference.

Such commissions are illegal

Roman Parkhomenko, one of the partners of the Pen & Paper bar, said in an interview with Vedomosti that this statement is extremely doubtful. According to him, non-cash payments in Russia are made through the National Payment Card System (NSCP), that is, there is no difference between Mir, Visa and Mastercard. According to Parkhomenko, the market is trying to shift purchasing costs to consumers. He explained that even if the statement of the Wildberries representative was correct, the establishment of the commission was against the law. The company may be held administratively liable and face a fine of up to 50 thousand rubles. Buyers also have the right to request a refund of the commission they paid.

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy Mikhail Delyagin in a conversation with socialbites.ca statedWildberries has no legal basis for establishing such a commission.

“I think he’s talking about buying Wildberries. In fact, banks charge a percentage fee for processing card payments. We’re not talking about Visa and Mastercard here; It’s not very clear why this doesn’t apply to UnionPay cards. Judging by the scandals, as I would guess, Wildberries is used to prospering by ripping off business partners, tightening conditions for those selling goods and organizing order pickup points. Having put its partners on strike in the spring of this year, Wildberries found that it encountered some resistance and that it was impossible to increase the pressure further. And now Wildberries has decided to move to another region. Wildberries decided to extort money from customers,” said Delyagin.

The MP believes that the introduction of commissions is an excuse to increase prices.

“Did this commission appear on October 9? No, it was always there. Just like in a store: you and I pay for the product, a commission is added to the price of the product. However, Wildberries discovered that it was selling products cheaper than other marketplaces. This was his competitive advantage. This competitive advantage has long been associated with the fact that, from my point of view, the risk of purchasing a low-quality product on Wildberries is much higher than on other marketplaces, according to people’s reviews. But this is compensated by the low price in the eyes of the buyer. Now Wildberries is increasing the price by 3%,” emphasized the politician.

Delyagin added that Visa and Mastercard have long been localized, so there is no point in transferring customers to the “patriotic” Mir system.

“Wildberries validated its reputation in my eyes. This act of monopoly arbitrariness is further evidence of the need for a law to strictly regulate the activities of marketplaces. “The so-called ‘Code of Bakalchuk’, named after the owner and creator of Wildberries, who proved to everyone that with a certain corporate culture the law is absolutely necessary, because it is almost impossible to agree on anything,” concluded Delyagin.

telegram channel Puree In his news, based on a source, he reported that market and bank representatives were summoned to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The meeting on this issue will be held today, October 12, at 17.00.

Wildberries forces Visa and Mastercard holders to pay more

In August 2021, the marketplace introduced a similar commission of 2% of the cost. That’s how much it cost to purchase at the time. However, at that time, the innovation was also applied to Maestro cards and payments made with Mir cards via Apple Pay. Rospotrebnadzor later assessed that the marketplace did not violate consumer rights.

At that time, Mastercard’s CEO in Russia, Alexey Malinovsky, announced that the payment system did not receive commission from either the consumer or the seller. According to a representative of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Wildberries cannot be held liable under the law on the protection of competition because this law contains only a prohibition on creating discriminatory conditions for dominant business entities.