According to key facts, the material looks reliable: data on the growth of the share of online commerce and the concentration of the largest sites coincide with public market estimates, and information about the adopted law on the platform economy and the timing of its entry is confirmed by official reports. C
The year 2025 was not a "growth story" for Russian marketplaces, but a year of public confrontation with the state, traditional retail, major banks and their own sellers. Against the background of the expanding influence of platforms, regulatory requirements have increased: according to INFOLine's forecast, the share of online commerce in turnover by the end of 2025 could reach 23.1% (20.3% a year earlier), and the combined share of the largest players — 67.2% against 66% in 2024.
The central event was the adoption of the law on the platform economy: it forms the basic rules of interaction between the marketplace, the seller and the owners of the PVZ, and entry into force is scheduled for October 1, 2026. The regulatory logic is clear — to consolidate the structure of contracts and limit arbitrary changes in working conditions. But the market met the initiative ambiguously: major industry associations and a number of retailers pointed out that some of the painful topics — counterfeiting, ranking algorithms, and the "weight" of fines — remained outside the final design.
A separate line was the conflict "marketplaces against banks" around discounts when paying through the payment products of the platforms themselves. In November, the largest banks sent proposals to the State Duma to limit direct discounts and "indirect forms of financing" (including bonus programs), and the Bank of Russia publicly supported the idea of banning different prices depending on the payment method and discussed the involvement of the FAS as a controller.
Key quotes that identified the conflict front:
"The main problems remained unresolved," said Dmitry Alekseev, head of DNS.
"The law takes a comprehensive approach to regulating the industry," said an Ozon representative.
"The law is balanced by the regulator, takes into account the interests of all parties to the platform business and the position of market participants," says a representative of Wildberries & Russ.
"Here are all the discounts they give — they are at our expense. And I don't feel sorry for the physical network at all, but I don't like it when marketplaces unlawfully take market share from physical networks due to non—market competition conditions created by the state," Gref said.
Against the background of external pressure, the internal conflict with the sellers has also escalated. Sellers and relevant associations complained about the increase in commissions, logistical costs, refunds and fines, as well as tools that limit price management. The main idea of the year was voiced in public assessments: for small and medium-sized businesses, the marketplace has ceased to be a "channel of opportunity" and has become a "channel of survival".
"As a result, in a number of categories, the total costs of the seller — commissions, logistics, storage, returns — reach 40-60% of revenue," he is outraged.
"It is simply impossible to sell on plus marketplaces today unless you are a major player with individual conditions. Small and medium—sized sellers either leave or work at zero," says Vetrennikov.
"Of course, this is only possible for large players — owners of their own brands or those with a significant market share, who will be able to earn on volume," says Rakhimberdiev.
The final of 2025 marked an important reversal: platforms are no longer just about trading. The largest players are scaling ecosystems — financial services, logistics, media and tourism — and thereby increasing competition not with "shops", but with entire sectors. This explains the genre of the "economic thriller": in 2026, the dispute over the rules of the platform economy, payments and fair competition, apparently, will become even tougher — especially against the background of the preparation of by-laws for the entry into force of the law.
