Brands build a power vertical

Manufacturers can obtain the official right to dictate a pricing policy for monobrand dealers and prohibit them from selling competitors' products. This will only legitimize existing practices, sellers say.

One of the amendments prepared by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for the second reading in the State Duma of amendments to the law "On Protection of Competition" proposes to allow so-called vertical agreements between the manufacturer and the seller operating under the manufacturer's trademark. “Such agreements may stipulate that the seller cannot sell the goods of competing manufacturers, follows from the text of the amendment. In addition, if the FAS amendments are adopted, the manufacturer's determination of the pricing policy of dealers and distributors operating under its trademark will not contradict the meaning of antimonopoly regulation, ”says Grigory Chernyshov, partner of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners.

“There is no revolution in the offers of the service: we are talking about clearer rules for the interaction of producers and sellers of goods,” said Sergei Puzyrevsky, head of the FAS department.

The adoption of the amendment is likely to affect the relationship of Russian manufacturers of clothing and footwear and their suppliers with dealers, said Director General of Jamilko Kira Balashova. “We do not expect this to affect our relationship with our European suppliers,” she continues. According to EU legislation, these companies do not have the right to prescribe to the distributor the price at which he must sell the goods, Balashova explains. Based on materials from the Vedomosti newspaper.