The Russian E-commerce Market During COVID-19: Legal Regulation and Trends

Abstract

The subject of this paper’s research is the peculiarities of legal regulation and development of the e-commerce market during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author examines in detail the concept of "e-commerce," which is understood as an economic sphere that combines trade and financial transactions that are carried out through contactless interaction of the parties involved. The article also analyzes the system of legal regulation of the e-commerce market and identifies trends for further improvement. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the pandemic on civil law turnover, resulting in the e-commerce market becoming the dominant commodity exchange in the Russian Federation. The study provides statistics on commodity exchange on online platforms for 2021–2022, which has grown significantly compared to previous years. The author’s main conclusions are that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the processes of digitalization in all spheres of public life, as a result of which trade and financial transactions, for the most part, began to be carried out via the Internet and laid the foundation of the digital economy; to date, electronic commerce has become predominant, but is not devoid of shortcomings of legal regulation; trends of strengthening digital transformation are aimed at delineating the legal status and responsibility of participants in trade ("marketplace," "online store," etc.), expanding the list of types of digital assets and determining their legal regime (account, etc.).