The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia has developed a draft government decree that amends the rules for the sale of goods under a retail sale agreement, the agency reports. The amendments will eliminate the ban on the use of the commission fee scheme for the sale of medicines.
“The rules for the sale of goods under a retail sale agreement, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 2463 of December 31, 2020, were adopted to replace the rules for commission fee trade in non-grocery goods approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 569 of June 6, 1998. These rules of commission fee trading were declared invalid as part of the administrative reform of control and supervisory activities,” the report says.
The new rules of sale introduced requirements that had not been included in the rules of commission trading before. For example, from January 1, 2021, the seller has no right to sell to the consumer some types of goods (including medicines) accepted for commission sale from any persons.
For instance, pharmacy organizations are now not allowed to sell to individuals any medicines that they received on the basis of a commission agreement from wholesale trade organizations or manufacturers. But at the level of the wholesale market, the sale of medicines using the commission fee scheme has a number of advantages, including:
– citizens can obtain medicines that are not widely used, those which pharmaceutical retailers find unprofitable to purchase in advance under supply contracts, since it is impossible to estimate the demand for such drugs in advance.
– pharmacy organizations are able to form a stock of such medicines and have the option of returning the medicines to wholesale trade organizations/manufacturers.
– surplus charges on such medicines that may be added at any stage of the commodity distribution chain are avoided if manufacturers work directly with pharmacy organizations according to the commission fee scheme.