Правовая природа маркетплейсов

Abstract

The advancement of information technology and the digital economy pose a challenge that calls for developing specific legal approaches to comprehend phenomena such as marketplaces. This article reviews the stances adopted by Russian and international legislators regarding the understanding of marketplaces. It is shown that legislators apply a similar legal regulation logic and consider marketplaces as subjects in a legal relationship, defining them based on a set of distinctive traits. Some lawmakers take account of the general ambiguity in defining marketplaces given the existence of similar phenomena, such as online stores and information aggregators, and, consequently, establish additional criteria for recognising a specific online platform as a marketplace. This paper examines enforcement practices in the Russian Federation and other countries, uncovering legislative gaps, particularly concerning the complexities of marketplace civil liability. By consolidating research findings, a distinct set of features is formulated to differentiate marketplaces from similar phenomena like online stores and information aggregators. Furthermore, an approach is proposed, suggesting the consideration of marketplaces as a system of legal relationships. By using specific norms, this approach facilitates targeted regulation of private legal relationships between parties within this system. This necessity arises from the analysis of enforcement practices, as general norms of contract law are inadequate for properly regulating such relationships since these norms fail to consider the role of the key party, namely the marketplace.