The Ministry of Energy named the risks of infrastructure payment to Russian Post

The adoption of a law on infrastructure payments from large online trading companies (marketplaces) in favor of Russian Post may entail certain risks for market participants and lead to an increase in prices for goods on the Internet. This was stated at a meeting in the Public Chamber (PC) on October 16 by the director of the Ministry of Energy’s department for the development of the digital economy, Vladimir Voloshin. The meeting at the OP was devoted to the development of marketplaces, and several initiatives related to online commerce were discussed at once, including a proposal for an infrastructure payment in favor of Russian Post. This was confirmed by Alexey Kozhevnikov, CEO of the ANO Digitalization and New Technologies, who was present at the meeting.

In September, the issue of infrastructure payment to Russian Post was commented on by the general director of the postal operator, Mikhail Volkov. Volkov told TASS that city residents have access to marketplace services, “but in villages and remote areas it either does not exist or is significantly limited.” “Mail,” for its part, is ready “to act as an operator – to provide its infrastructure in order, on the one hand, to eliminate this inequality, and on the other, to enable participants in the e-commerce market and marketplaces to develop without major investments,” Volkov explained the initiative. “Mechanisms of this kind are used in international and Russian practice – for example, the federal project “Eliminating the Digital Inequality,” emphasized the General Director of Post.