Blocking russian online stores: white lists, black lists

How are these lists here and there to begin to get annoy: the forbidden sites, medications, characters, entrepreneurs, country and so on. In Russia every month there is another initiative to make a list, whether black or white.

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Today, as far as possible abstracting from the familiar owners of online stores, I looked at another "masterpiece" of the idea of the initiators to regulate the market of Internet Commerce.

Service for supervision in the sphere of protection of consumer rights Russia, not having time to comment on his idea of creating a black list of manufacturers (as well as suppliers and sellers) of food products caught on falsification and non-compliance with the requirements of established regulations, decided not to stop one list.

Violent activity led to the initiative to create a "white list" of Russian and foreign Internet sites with the registration of website addresses in the tax service. Although the sanctions of the question yet, but in private comments, the department does not hide much, the idea of blocking "naughty".

The reason for the emergence of such proposals right now, lead to an actively growing percentage of fraud, when according to surveys more than 20% of Russians suffered losses as a result of online shopping, especially on foreign trading platforms (low-quality goods, non-receipt of the order, etc.). So, for last year in Russia it was recorded about 9 thousand complaints on Internet shops (the register of which will allow to redirect them to the address specified at registration in tax service e-mail) .

I believe that the main reason for such activity is rather the inexorable growth of the e-Commerce market. Well how can I miss this tidbit? To urgently regulate and tax it!

In many respects the interest of the authorities is fueled by the "business" -the Association of Internet trading companies, which lobbies and constantly presses information on the growth of cross-border trade in recent years by 15 times (the seizure of foreign beneficiaries half of the market). They even customs duties of individuals became a burden (reducing the threshold of duty-free importation is their "merit").

Society, as usual divided, some believe that the registration of online stores in the tax service had to be introduced a few years ago, others are watching the development of a vicious circle of excessive state regulation. The only question is whether they think about the consequences of the emergence of another lever of pressure on foreign Internet platforms?

The possibility of introducing a tax on the sale of goods from abroad has been discussed for several years. The time has come, foreign sellers want to recognize taxpayers and the online platform tax agents required to withhold tax in the case of the addressee of the parcel on the territory of Russia.

Sadly, the imposition of a tax, not only organizationally complicate the whole process for foreign web sites, but naturally will lead to higher prices of goods. It is not necessary to exclude the possible departure of some companies from the Russian market, and hence the likely decline in competition with the growth of local prices.

I recall the recent initiative of the Central Bank of Russia to restore order to its "black list". When hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and companies found themselves with blocked accounts, and some still have to lose time, customers and money due to re-registration.

If we wait for the replacement measures of prohibitive character of reasonable economic incentives, that is the question!