Sale of goods through marketplaces: problems of realization and protection of consumer rights

Abstract

The subject of the research in this article is the problems of legal regulation of the sale and protection of the rights of buyers when selling goods through marketplaces. The authors pay special attention to the characteristics of the application of this method of selling goods. The specifics of providing the marketplace to the consumer with reliable, complete and accurate information about the characteristics of the product, price, delivery and return conditions, the specifics of ordering and canceling the order, returning goods of inadequate quality and goods that did not suit the consumer in shape, dimensions, style, coloring, size or configuration are considered. The doctrinal approaches to the definition of the concepts of "marketplace" and "information aggregator" are investigated. It is noted that terminological certainty, which is so necessary in this field of legal regulation, is accepted as a condition for extending legal guarantees of the realization and protection of consumer rights in their universal meaning to the studied relations. The research was conducted using general philosophical (materialistic, dialectical), general scientific (logical, system-structural), private scientific (formal legal) methods. As a result of the study, it is proved that the sale of goods to consumers through marketplaces is characterized by a number of significant features that distinguish this method from distance trading in general, due to the presence of which there is a need to develop rules for the sale of goods (provision of services, performance of works) based on the marketplace. The authors propose to understand the marketplace as an intermediary platform between consumers of goods, works and services, organizations, individual entrepreneurs selling goods for personal, family and other consumption unrelated to entrepreneurial activity, built on the basis of a specific aggregator of information about goods, designed to create conditions for the conclusion, execution, termination and modification of the contract between the specified entities through e-commerce. It is noted that the mandatory components of the rules should be the rules for the exchange and return of goods purchased through the marketplace; the rules for refunding funds for goods of inadequate quality or goods that did not suit the consumer in shape, size, style, coloring, size or configuration; the rules for disclosing information about the sold product, including requirements for its originality; the rules registration and cancellation of the product order on the marketplace; rules for handling complaints and appeals to the marketplace.