They offered to take compensation for losses from returning brands

Public activists offered the government their conditions for returning foreign brands that have left the country. For example, the Public Consumer Initiative (OPI) is confident that in such cases, foreign companies should compensate people for the losses they have caused, the organization said in a letter to the government, which was reviewed by Izvestia. Indeed, in some cases, when our former partners — manufacturers and importers — left the country, they violated the rights of consumers.

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For example, manufacturers disabled the functions of smartphones, cars, and other equipment. Also, people could not install software updates, and the repair time increased, sometimes it happened that the service specialists could not diagnose the goods. All this made it difficult for customers to use fairly expensive products, to the point that it was impossible to use appliances and electronics, the OPI said in a letter. This resulted in losses for people, which continue to occur even now.

"Disabling product functions during the warranty period and service life is unacceptable, we are sure that this should be recognized as a defect in the product, in which the consumer has the right to demand that the manufacturer or importer refund the money paid for these products. Plus, the consumer's claims to the quality of the product's software (computer, smartphone, car, and so on. — Ed.) should be considered as requirements for the quality of the product itself as a whole," said Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative.

In practice, the consumer will need to prove the purchase of the goods. The amount of compensation can be 5-10% of the cost of the product — if it is a question of disabling the functions of machinery and equipment. If the smartphone no longer has contactless payment function or the manufacturer has blocked the installation of some applications. The same should be done if foreigners have disabled some of the car's functions, such as remote start, status monitoring, and so on.

For such cases, a special fund should function in the Russian Federation, to which returning companies contribute, and people will be able to receive further compensation from it. This should be done according to uniform rules that have yet to be developed. According to the OPI estimates, sales of departed brands in the Russian market exceeded 8 trillion rubles, which means, the organization believes, the size of the compensation fund should be at least 400 billion rubles.

"And a contribution to it will become a prerequisite for returning to Russia, such funds can also be used for import substitution programs," Oleg Pavlov said.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Reverse greetings: they offered to take compensation for losses from returning brands