The lawyer warned about criminal liability for "refand" on marketplaces

Massive unjustified returns of goods ("refands") on marketplaces are becoming a new challenge for Russian online commerce and the law enforcement system, lawyer Ekaterina Krasnova said in a conversation with Izvestia. Small trading platforms and sellers with a low level of legal protection are particularly vulnerable.

At the same time, citizens themselves who engage in such activities run the risk of running into problems with the law.

"What is presented online as a "life hack" or "savings" is actually a well-organized fraud system. While the authors of the channels earn money by selling manuals, their subscribers risk getting a criminal case for a bouquet of flowers or a power bank," the editorial interlocutor emphasized.

At the same time, the lawyer admitted that it is difficult to prove the intent of the attackers: such conflicts are on the verge of criminal and civil law, which fraudsters actively use.

A community of "referrers" who use consumer protection mechanisms to receive goods for free or at a big discount, and then resell them, has formed online in the last two years. As a result of their actions, sellers of various goods and services incur multimillion-dollar losses.

For more information about criminal schemes involving the return of goods, see the Izvestia article.

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