However, on July 29, 2018, amendments to the Law on Consumer Rights
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 6:21 am
Until July 2018, aggregators were not a subject in the relationship between the seller or service provider on the one hand and the end buyer or customer on the other. This is due to the fact that the Russian law on consumer protection (ZoPP), which is still in effect today, was adopted back in 1992.
Protection came into force, which included a mention of aggregators, their rights and obligations: "The owner of an aggregator who provided the consumer with inaccurate or incomplete information about a product (service) or seller (contractor), on the basis of which the consumer entered into a sales contract (contract for the provision of services for a fee) with the seller (contractor), is liable for damages caused to the consumer as a result of providing him with such information."
Anna Markelova, a lawye egypt whatsapp number database r at the Moscow Bar Association "Zhorin and Partners" and a consultant at the S.S. Alekseev Research Center for Private Law under the President of the Russian Federation, in her article "Civil Liability of Taxi Aggregators: Between Contractual and Tort Law" published in the Digital Law Journal, called these changes not entirely comprehensive, which allowed aggregators to evade real liability, at least when it came to taxi services: "In some cases, courts refuse to satisfy a claim against Yandex.Taxi for compensation for damages, citing precisely these arguments: Yandex.Taxi informed the user that it was not a carrier, and the user was not misled in any way."
Associate Professor of the Department of Entrepreneurial and Corporate Law at the Russian State University of Justice (RSUP) Valery Belov noted that special grounds for liability of digital intermediaries have been fully established only for operators of investment platforms. For other service aggregators and digital intermediaries, in his opinion, the grounds for bringing them to civil and criminal liability in the event of their violation of the rights of citizens and legal entities have still not been sufficiently developed, and the Russian legal community has not yet developed a unified point of view on the regulation of such services.
Therefore, a number of digital platforms do not consider themselves aggregators. For example, the press service of YurentBike.ru LLC (Yurent) responded to ComNews' question about the division of responsibility between the platform, franchisees, and end users with the following comment: "The Yurent service is not an aggregator; we rent out micromobility vehicles to users. In accordance with the law, in particular the traffic rules, the driver of the vehicle, i.e. the user who is driving the scooter at that moment, is responsible. This responsibility is also spelled out in the user agreement, which the user agrees to by registering in the application. Responsibility for an accident is determined by authorized bodies; the company assists the investigation in accordance with the law.
If a franchisee operates in the city, he is the owner of the vehicles (scooters) and is fully responsible for their condition, including technical serviceability. The relevant conditions, including the boundaries of responsibility, are spelled out in the agreement with the franchisee."
However, a criminal case opened by the Investigative Committee after eight people died, including two minors, during an excursion along the Neglinka River in central Moscow due to rapid flooding of the collector after a downpour threatens to change this situation. The organizers of the excursion, Nikita Dubas and guide Konstantin Filippov (he was among the dead) were charged with "providing services that do not meet safety requirements and that resulted in the death of two or more persons through negligence" (Part 3 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Another defendant in the case, the general director of Avangard LLC, Aleksandr Lazovsky, managed to leave Russia.
Protection came into force, which included a mention of aggregators, their rights and obligations: "The owner of an aggregator who provided the consumer with inaccurate or incomplete information about a product (service) or seller (contractor), on the basis of which the consumer entered into a sales contract (contract for the provision of services for a fee) with the seller (contractor), is liable for damages caused to the consumer as a result of providing him with such information."
Anna Markelova, a lawye egypt whatsapp number database r at the Moscow Bar Association "Zhorin and Partners" and a consultant at the S.S. Alekseev Research Center for Private Law under the President of the Russian Federation, in her article "Civil Liability of Taxi Aggregators: Between Contractual and Tort Law" published in the Digital Law Journal, called these changes not entirely comprehensive, which allowed aggregators to evade real liability, at least when it came to taxi services: "In some cases, courts refuse to satisfy a claim against Yandex.Taxi for compensation for damages, citing precisely these arguments: Yandex.Taxi informed the user that it was not a carrier, and the user was not misled in any way."
Associate Professor of the Department of Entrepreneurial and Corporate Law at the Russian State University of Justice (RSUP) Valery Belov noted that special grounds for liability of digital intermediaries have been fully established only for operators of investment platforms. For other service aggregators and digital intermediaries, in his opinion, the grounds for bringing them to civil and criminal liability in the event of their violation of the rights of citizens and legal entities have still not been sufficiently developed, and the Russian legal community has not yet developed a unified point of view on the regulation of such services.
Therefore, a number of digital platforms do not consider themselves aggregators. For example, the press service of YurentBike.ru LLC (Yurent) responded to ComNews' question about the division of responsibility between the platform, franchisees, and end users with the following comment: "The Yurent service is not an aggregator; we rent out micromobility vehicles to users. In accordance with the law, in particular the traffic rules, the driver of the vehicle, i.e. the user who is driving the scooter at that moment, is responsible. This responsibility is also spelled out in the user agreement, which the user agrees to by registering in the application. Responsibility for an accident is determined by authorized bodies; the company assists the investigation in accordance with the law.
If a franchisee operates in the city, he is the owner of the vehicles (scooters) and is fully responsible for their condition, including technical serviceability. The relevant conditions, including the boundaries of responsibility, are spelled out in the agreement with the franchisee."
However, a criminal case opened by the Investigative Committee after eight people died, including two minors, during an excursion along the Neglinka River in central Moscow due to rapid flooding of the collector after a downpour threatens to change this situation. The organizers of the excursion, Nikita Dubas and guide Konstantin Filippov (he was among the dead) were charged with "providing services that do not meet safety requirements and that resulted in the death of two or more persons through negligence" (Part 3 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Another defendant in the case, the general director of Avangard LLC, Aleksandr Lazovsky, managed to leave Russia.