Contractual Responsibility of Marketplaces

Abstract

The rapid development of e-commerce generates new subjects of civil turnover. Marketplaces are commodity aggregators with a vague legal status. A marketplace is more than an information intermediary: it is an ecosystem with highly developed logistics that provides interaction between the seller and the buyer, as well as information about goods and delivery points. In addition, it settles disputes between sellers and buyers by applying various resolution tools. The article describes the legal nature of the relations connected with marketplace ecosystems, i.e., between the marketplace and the seller, between the marketplace and the delivery point, between the marketplace and the buyer. The author also assessed the integration of the marketplace into the classic purchase-and-sale relationship between the buyer and the seller. These parties sign commission contracts, agency agreements, and fee-based service contacts, each of which has its specifics. The author defined the limits of contractual liability in the seller – marketplace – consumer trade chain. If the seller – buyer relations are violated, the responsibility of the marketplace needs to be expanded because the marketplace undertakes to verify the reliability of sellers and the quality of goods. The author applied a doctrinal perspective to the legislative initiatives of 2023–2024 in relation to marketplaces, as well as developed some recommendations on how to improve e-commerce legislation in the Russian Federation.

Keywords

• marketplace
• product aggregator
• responsibility
• trade
• e-commerce
• seller
• consumer
• contract
• online trading platforms