under the auspices of ministries
According to the Ministry’s Telegram channel, the Ministry of Digital Transformation stands for transparency in market affairs. They are also monitoring the situation at Wildberry.
They stated that support would go toward improving arbitrage services and collecting feedback from market partners. Wildberry faces challenges with substitution of costly goods by attackers at its ordering points. The ministry emphasized that any control system must remain transparent to marketplace partners and should be open to review.
The Ministry of Digital Development made clear that the marketplace will not incur new penalties while the system is in a complete state. Alongside the Ministry of Industry and Trade, they pledged to keep the situation under control to protect the interests of all participants in electronic commerce and ensure that ordinary buyers are not harmed.
Deputy Minister Viktor Evtukhov of the Ministry of Industry and Trade told reporters that the ministry urged Wildberries to strengthen feedback with employees and partners. He noted that in addition to internal controls to prevent fraudulent activity, any marketplace that operates as a specialized retail format must continuously develop its services and tools, focusing on the effectiveness of sellers and buyers and the importance of feedback channels between managers and partners.
Evtukhov expressed hope that Wildberries could resolve all controversial issues. Labor Minister Anton Kotyakov told reporters that the Ministry of Labor is also working to resolve the situation. He highlighted the growing interest in Wildberry from Rostrud, the troop aides, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to Kotyakov, Wildberries does not fall under the category of platform employment and maintains traditional working relationships.
First concessions
On Thursday, the second day of strikes in Russia, Wildberries canceled more than ten thousand wrongful fines for goods substitution, a company representative told RIA Novosti. He mentioned that the marketplace reviews about 3,000 requests daily for problematic situations and that the arbitration system has been strengthened alongside improved feedback on testing the mechanism to tighten control over substitution by owners and employees of the pickup points.
Wildberries promised that in the near future the company’s employees, partners, and feedback system would be updated to increase the speed of ticket processing for problem situations severalfold. The company also announced a temporary tightening of controls to prevent possible fraudulent activity.
In addition, the marketplace said it would temporarily freeze the mechanism to cancel substitutions conducted by owners of ordering joint points and pickup point managers in order to resolve all disputed situations.
mass strike
On the eve of the protest, dozens of private Wildberry distribution points stopped working in Moscow and across regions including the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Urals, Irkutsk, Bratsk, Angarsk, Chita, Buryatia, Vladivostok, and Blagoveshchensk. A widespread strike targeted the system of fines introduced by marketplace management.
The action was organized by Wildberrys business partners in the MEGA riot public chat, which brought together more than 11,000 employees at the distribution points. Under new rules set by Wildberry management, if a buyer returns due to product damage or wrong items, distribution point staff would collect the full price. The company pointed to a specific algorithm that assigns responsibility to the distribution point in the majority of cases.
Participants demanded the cancellation of all penalties for marriages and substitutions, as well as a reduction of penalties for returns to the previous 25 percent. Wildberries stood firm and did not comply with the distribution point owners’ demands. The company paused cooperation with striking points due to threats, and couriers were redirected to collect goods from the marketplace and from enterprising vendors.
The state stepped in with a meeting in the State Duma. Wildberries representatives did not attend, so the meeting proceeded with distribution point owners, representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and members of the State Duma committee on competition control. Lawmakers promised to draft a bill prohibiting unilateral changes to contract terms by companies.
A subsequent round of talks did occur with market representatives meeting the lawmakers. Wildberries conveyed the full list of pickup point requirements and was asked to respond to each item by March 17. The Moscow prosecutor’s office also opened an investigation into the situation.
In total, 33,000 Wildberry distribution points operate in Russia, with 13,800 of them functioning as joint distribution points.