“The support of Russia”: trade will benefit by the new trade law

Russian State Duma passed the law “The basics of trade activity regulation in Russian Federation” in the third reading. The law should come into effect on February 1, 2010.

The leaders of the all-Russian public business organization “The Support of Russia” consider Russian consumers will gain by this law. The main important thing, as they say, is that the document is aimed at development of the trade branch in a whole.

The work over the law went on several years. The variant, offered by Russian Government, has been passed still in September. About 300 amendments were introduced by the second reading. Finally the document was passed in the variant the Government RF advocated for.

In particular, the Government has the right to fix “maximally admissible retail prices for the maximal term no more than 90 days. The prices can be frozen “for socially significant goods of the first priority”. But this mechanism can be switched on only if in the course of the last 30 calendar days the growth of retail prices for these goods made more than 30%.

The law solves the problem of so-called “bonuses”, levied by the trade networks fr om purveyors for the right of placement of their goods. The bonuses remain but their maximally possible amount is strictly regulated.

The law also determines the anti-monopoly restriction – the domination threshold for trade networks: 25% of all sold out foodstuffs in a region. The lim ited terms, within which the trade networks have to pay for the foods delivered, are also indicated by the law. Thus, the foodstuffs with the keeping time less than 10 days, frozen chicken meat, frozen pork and beef and milk are matured within the period of time equal to 10 days from the acceptance day and the foodstuffs with the keeping time more than 30 days and the drinks, manufactured on the territory of Russia are matured within the period of time equal to 45 calendar days.