Page 12 - bne magazine July 2022_20220704

12 I Companies & Markets bne July 2022
gas crisis, but analysts Ben Mcwilliams, Giovanni Sgaravatti, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann have raised
a fourth scenario: Gazprom squeezes the market in the summer to create a panic and send prices skyward, but then drops the restrictions and floods the market at the end of summer.
“Just imagine what would happen if by the summer, EU gas companies managed to amass close to 1,000 TWh and Gazprom suddenly decides it is time to release the volumes it withheld last year,” the analysts speculate. “Prices would drop dramatically, leaving all those who stored gas – helping Europe prepare for winter – with huge losses. This is a catch-22 scenario.”
Russian retailers launch “parallel import” electronic sales
Ben Aris in Berlin
Russia’s retailers have start importing electronics using “parallel imports” that source the products from intermediaries and allow them to ignore the wishes of the owners of the intellectual property.
Russia’s phone retail chain Svyaznoy is the first major retailer to confirm the start of electronics imports through parallel imports.
The chain will add some 100 products to its offering that are on the parallel imports list. Last year Russia imported 30mn smartphones, but following the imposition of self-sanctions (as phones have been specifically excluded from the sanctions lists), most of the major brands have withdrawn from Russia. Shifting to parallel imports means Russia’s retailers cannot deal with the manufacturers directly and will necessarily have to import products in smaller batches, thus driving up prices.
Svyaznoy reported that devices will be 10%-20% more expensive than similar devices imported before the start of the war in Ukraine. Another major change is that phones cannot be sold under warranty.
Other major retailers are set to follow Svyaznoy into the parallel imports business soon, taking Russia’s trade regime for high-end consumer goods back to where it was in the 1990s.
Major Russian e-commerce marketplaces are planning to streamline their supplies of the so-called “parallel imports” for goods that are no longer officially distributed in Russia as brands pull out of the country amid the military invasion of Ukraine, Kommersant daily reported.
In the meantime, the previously booming e-commerce sector has been hit by the fallout of the invasion as leading local marketplaces have reportedly requested state support from the government.
Other leading e-commerce sites will follow suit but have yet to comment explicitly on their plans. Yandex.Market is planning to set up a new supplies department that will be responsible for building parallel import supply channels for
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household appliances, power tools, electronics and health products, Kommersant claims, citing unnamed sources and new vacancies published by the e-commerce marketplace
of Russian internet major Yandex. The first batch of foreign branded electronics and home appliances has already arrived at Yandex.Market warehouses, Kommersant sources claim.
Russia’s largest e-commerce platform Wildberries and e-fashion major Lamoda have not made any statements yet.
The Duma signed off on the parallel imports law on June 21 making the practice legal, which was previously banned as Russia struggled for years to stamp out privacy and improve intellectual property rights. The introduction of the parallel imports legislation was proposed almost immediately after
Cut off from dealing with the manufacturers of famous international electronics brands, some Russian retailers have launched parallel import sales. / wiki